A dying star's wind blasts a glowing gas shell at 150,000 km/h

the gist

Hen 2-427, better known as WR 124, is a Wolf-Rayet star, a type of very hot, massive star that throws off its outer layers in a fierce stream. The clumps of gas it ejects travel at more than 150,000 kilometres an hour, and together they have built the nebula M1-67 around it. The pair sits in the constellation Sagitta, about 15,000 light-years away. The nebula is estimated to be no more than 10,000 years old, which is very young by astronomical standards. Hubble's image shows the star and its shell in fresh detail after the picture was reprocessed with modern software.

how it works

Wolf-Rayet stars are massive stars that have burned through much of their hydrogen and now shed their outer layers through powerful stellar winds. The ejected material escapes into space and is lit up by the star's intense radiation, which makes it glow. Because the gas moves fast, it collides with and sculpts earlier material into shells and clumps. Hubble's reprocessed view makes the structure of these clumps visible.

so what

Wolf-Rayet winds are one way that heavy elements forged inside massive stars return to space, where they can become part of later stars and planets. Seeing one at close range helps astronomers test models of how the most massive stars lose material before they die.

the bigger pattern

Wolf-Rayet stars are a rare class, with only a few hundred known in the Milky Way, and they represent a late stage in the life of very massive stars. Many such stars are expected to end their lives as supernovae, and their winds seed the surrounding space with carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.

fun fact

The category is named after the astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet, who identified the first such stars in 1867.

ESA/Hubble · CC BY 4.0

Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt ( geckzilla.com )

source: ESA/Hubble ↗

historyWikipediaclassic1336–1565 · Karnataka, India

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗