Zooming into the Red Giant Star R Sculptoris | ESO

Zooming into the Red Giant Star R Sculptoris | ESO

This video sequence starts with a view of the rather faint constellations of Sculptor (The Sculptor) and Cetus (The Sea Monster). As we zoom in we see a few faint galaxies but close in on a star that looks very red. This is the old red giant variable star R Sculptoris. Observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed an unexpected spiral structure in the material around this star.

Distance: 1,500 light years

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/A. Fujii/Digitized Sky Survey 2

Duration: 56 seconds

Release Date: October 11, 2012

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