Astronomers observe a dying red giant star's final act

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Using a powerful telescope, scientists view spiral pattern of gaseous emissions around LL Pegasi and its companion star.

Using a powerful telescope, scientists view spiral pattern of gaseous emissions around LL Pegasi and its companion star.

An international team of astronomers has observed a striking spiral pattern in the gas surrounding a red giant star named LL Pegasi and its companion star 3,400 light-years from Earth, using a powerful telescope in northern Chile called Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA.

“What we are seeing in splendid detail with these observations is the final act of a dying red giant star, as it sheds most of its gaseous bulk in a strong, outflowing wind,” said study co-author Mark Morris, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy.

After comparing their telescopic observations with computer simulations, the astronomers concluded that a highly elliptical orbit is responsible for the shape of the gaseous emissions surrounding this system.

Read more at University of California - Los Angeles

Image: This is a molecular gas around star LL Pegasi. (Credit: ALMA, Hyosun Kim)