The region around a red giant star called R Sculptoris has been captured in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
This image shows the region around R Sculptoris. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.
R Sculptoris is located in the Sculptor constellation, approximately 1,500 light-years away.
Recent observations have shown that the material surrounding the star actually forms a spiral structure – a phenomenon probably caused by a hidden companion star orbiting the red giant.
Systems with multiple stars often lead to unusual or unexpected morphologies, as seen, for example, in the wide range of striking planetary nebulae that Hubble has imaged.
R Sculptoris is an example of an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star.
These are stars with initial masses between 0.8 and 8 solar masses in the late stages of their lives.
They are cool, red giants with large mass loss in the form of strong stellar winds, and are typically long-period variables.
Their structure consists of a tiny central core of carbon and oxygen surrounded by a helium and hydrogen burning shell, and then an enormous convective envelope.
Astronomers say that our Sun will eventually evolve into an AGB star.
R Sculptoris itself is located outside the plane of the Milky Way and is easily visible using a moderately sized amateur telescope.
In this part of the sky far from the galactic plane, there are relatively few stars but many faint and distant galaxies can be seen.
The center of the new Hubble image is blackened to cover the star itself, allowing its surrounding gas to be more easily seen.
