First Close-up Picture of an Extragalactic Star: WOH G64 in LMC Galaxy | ESO

First Close-up Picture of an Extragalactic Star: WOH G64 in LMC Galaxy | ESO

Thanks to the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers have taken the first close-up picture of a star outside our galaxy, more than 160,000 light-years from us. The star is surrounded by a giant cocoon of dust, revealing it is in the last stages before becoming a supernova. This video summarizes the discovery. The newly imaged star, WOH G64, lies within the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the small galaxies that orbits the Milky Way. Astronomers have known about this star for decades and have appropriately dubbed it the ‘behemoth star’. With a size roughly 2,000 times that of our Sun, WOH G64 is classified as a red supergiant.

Video Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Directed by: Angelos Tsaousis and Martin Wallner
Editing: Angelos Tsaousis
Written by: Hanna Huysegoms, Alejandro Izquierdo Lopez
Footage and Photos: ESO / Luis Calçada, Martin Kornmesser, Cristoph Malin, Babak Tafreshi, Keiichi Ohnaka et al
Scientific Consultant: Paola Amico, Mariya Lyubenova
Release Date: Nov. 21, 2024

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