IRS-3 Field
This striking image featuring a cosmic swirl of colours depicts the field where the star, IRS-3 resides, only 0.55 light years away from our galaxy’s centre. IRS-3 is an old star, in its asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stage of its life, where it is massive, bright, and releases a lot of gases into space which are key components of cosmic dust, where stars and other celestial objects form.
This star is particularly interesting because it stretches what we thought we knew about stars located near blackholes, and if they can continue providing gases to its environment that later aid in the formation of stars and planets.
As it happens to be, scientists found that IRS-3 is continuing to give off gas and enrich its environment despite being in the extreme conditions of the supermassive blackhole, Sagittarius A*.
It’s quite inspiring how stars still persist even in the harshest environments, and of course, how scientists continue to expand our knowledge of the universe.
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, F. Peißker, J. Lu, F. Yusef-Zadeh, N. B. Sabha, C. Chan
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