The behemoth has a thick belt

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The position of the supergiant star WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud one of the Milky Ways neighbouring galaxies is shown in this Spitzer image (left). On the right an artists impression is provided of the thick massive torus of matter surroundi ...
The position of the supergiant star WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way's neighbouring galaxies, is shown in this Spitzer image (left). On the right, an artist's impression is provided of the thick, massive torus of matter surrounding the star as inferred from observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer. This is the first time that MIDI resolves an individual star in a neighbouring galaxy. Credit: ESO

Talk about a diet! By resolving, for the first time, features of an individual star in a neighbouring galaxy, ESO's VLT has allowed astronomers to determine that it weighs almost half of what was previously thought, thereby solving the mystery of its existence. The behemoth star is found to be surrounded by a massive and thick torus of gas and dust, and is most likely experiencing unstable, violent mass loss.


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