WOH G64 Star

About WOH G64 Star:

• It is a massive star that has been imaged with remarkable sharpness by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI).
• It dwells in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf or satellite galaxy that orbits our Milky Way, which also happens to be one of the closest galaxies to us.
• It was discovered in the 1970s by Bengt Westerlunds, Olander, and Hedin. Incidentally, the WOH in its name is the acronym for the names of its three discoverers.
• The star is believed to be around 1,60,000 light years away from Earth.
• It is classified as a red supergiant owing to its size, which is roughly 2,000 times that of the Sun. 
• The new photo has revealed that WOH G64 is entering the last stages of its life. In recent years, the star has blown off its outer layer, and it is now surrounded by wreaths and arcs of gas and dust.

What are Magellanic Clouds?

• These are irregular galaxies that share a gaseous envelope and lie about 22° apart in the sky near the south celestial pole.
• They are composed of two irregular galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), which orbit the Milky Way once every 1,500 million years and each other once every 900 million years.
• These companion galaxies were named for the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, whose crew discovered them during the first voyage around the world (1519–22). 
• Magellanic Clouds were formed at about the same time as the Milky Way Galaxy, approximately 13 billion years ago. 
• They are presently captured in orbits around the Milky Way Galaxy and have experienced several tidal encounters with each other and with the Galaxy. 
• They contain numerous young stars and star clusters, as well as some much older stars. 

Q1: What is a Supernova?

A supernova is the name given to the cataclysmic explosion of a massive star. They are the largest explosion that takes place in space.

Source: How scientists took first zoomed-in image of star outside our galaxy

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