First Close-Up Image of Star WOH G64

Astronomers have successfully captured the first close-up image of a distant star, WOH G64, located 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way. This red supergiant, approximately 2,000 times the size of the Sun, is in the last stages of its life and is expected to go supernova soon. The image, taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, reveals an egg-shaped cocoon of gas and dust around the star, indicating significant material ejection. The star's dimming over the past decade suggests it's nearing its explosive end, offering a rare opportunity to study a star's life cycle in real time. This achievement marks a significant milestone in astronomical imaging, allowing scientists to observe stellar phenomena in galaxies beyond our own. The study was led by astrophysicist Keiichi Ohnaka and published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.