Thanks to an extraordinary technological breakthrough, it was possible to capture WOH G64, a red supergiant located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 160,000 light years from Earth. This exceptional result was achieved by the Andrés Bello University in collaboration with ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
An unprecedented stellar close-up
The star, long known to astronomers, is in the final stages of its existence. The image shows a shell of gas and dust with an elongated shape, a typical feature of red supergiants poised to become supernovae. With the help of the VLTI's second-generation instruments, the researchers captured never-before-seen details, revealing that WOH G64 is weakening faster and faster.
Technology for the future of space exploration
The VLTI combines light from four telescopes of the Very Large Telescope, creating a “virtual telescope” capable of obtaining super-detailed images. However, taking new close-up pictures of WOH G64 will become increasingly complex as the star loses brightness. Hopes are pinned on future instrumentation upgrades.
Take your message into space
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