Coils of Apep: A Binary Star System | ESO

Coils of Apep: A Binary Star System | ESO

The VISIR instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) captured this stunning image of a massive binary star system. Nicknamed Apep after an ancient Egyptian deity, it could be the first gamma-ray burst progenitor to be found in our galaxy.

Distance: about 8,000 light years

Apep’s stellar winds have created the dust cloud surrounding the system, which consists of a binary star with a fainter companion. With 2 Wolf-Rayet stars orbiting each other in the binary, the serpentine swirls surrounding Apep are formed by the collision of two sets of powerful stellar winds, which create the spectacular dust plumes seen in the image.

The reddish pinwheel in this image is data from the VISIR instrument on European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, and shows the spectacular plumes of dust surrounding Apep. The blue sources at the center of the image are a triple star system—which consists of a binary star system and a companion single star bound together by gravity. Though only two star-like objects are visible in the image, the lower source is in fact an unresolved binary Wolf-Rayet star. The triple star system was captured by the NACO adaptive optics instrument on the VLT.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Callingham et al.

Release Date: November 19, 2018

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