WR 140

colliding-wind binary · a dust-making machine

5,600 light-years from Earth

A Wolf-Rayet star and an O-type giant on an 8-year orbit. Each time they swing close, their colliding winds squeeze out a puff of carbon soot. The James Webb telescope saw 17 of these shells nested like ripples.

• 5,600 light-years · shells spaced about 0.07 light-years apart
• the dust streams out at ~2,600 km/s

kind

star