Massive stars enrich the interstellar medium (MIS) with chemical elements synthesized during their main sequence and released during their terminal supernova explosion. With their fast winds, they also make a major contribution to the energetics of this interstellar medium.
Massive stars that are at an advanced stage of stellar evolution and are losing mass at a very high rate are called Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. With masses typically greater than 15 times that of the Sun, they have short lifespans (several million years!) and are therefore quite rare objects.
This is the case with WR 134, which is a variable star located about 6,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the Cygnus constellation. It is five times the radius of the Sun, but due to a temperature above 63,000 K, it is 400,000 times brighter than the Sun.
No longer in its main sequence, WR 134 expels some of these outer layers which are then blown away by the star’s intense radiation and fast stellar winds. The ejecta then collided with the ambient nebula surrounding the star to form this kind of disk (in blue in the image) characteristic of WRs.
Technical details :
apo Takahashi FSQ 106 Scope at F/D 5
iOptron 70 cem G iPolar mount
Zwo asi 2600mm pro
Antlia pro 3nm filters
Acquisition sampling : 1,46 arcsec
85 x 180s HA : 04 h 15 min
183 x 300s Oiii : 15 h 15 min
3 x 30 x 120s RGB : 03 h
Total integration: 22 h 30 min
DOF: 31/149/25
Date: July/August 2022
Location: HAO Observatory (Z02) of Oukaimeden, Morocco.