Today In Pretty Space Pics: Weird Gassy Spirals Surround Dying Star
Strange Space Spiral ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)It's the first time scientists have obtained 3-D information about a star's death spiral and offers a hint of our own sun's far future. Astronomers using the ALMA telescope have found an unusual spiral surrounding an elderly star, and they believe it was caused by a hidden companion orbiting the dying red giant. This is the first time anyone has found such a structure along with a spherical outer shell, astronomers report this week. The star, R Sculptoris, is called an asymptotic giant branch star, a type that starts out anywhere from about the size of the sun to 8 times the size of the sun. (The sun will also become an AGB star when it grows old.) Red giants like this spew huge amounts of dust and gas as they die, providing the raw materials for new stars, planets and us. Shells of this material...