One of the largest known stars in the universe, "WOH G64", has undergone drastic changes. It is presumed that an explosion may occur. An international group of astronomers led by Gonzalo Múñoz-Sánchez from the National Observatory of Athens has reached this conclusion.
Modern.az reports that the research has been published in the journal "Nature Astronomy".
"WOH G64" is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and is approximately 160,000 light-years away from Earth. The star was discovered in the 1970s. Its radius is 1500 times greater than the Sun's radius. In 2024, it became the first star outside our galaxy to be photographed in detail. This was made possible by the European Southern Observatory's "Very Large Telescope" interferometer. The images show a dense dust envelope around the star, indicating that it is actively losing mass.
The authors of the new study state that in 2014, "WOH G64" transitioned from the red supergiant phase to a rarer and more unstable state — the yellow hypergiant phase. In their opinion, this may indicate that the star is rapidly losing its outer layers and entering the final stage of its short life.
The age of the star "WOH G64" is estimated to be less than 5 million years. For comparison, the Sun's age is approximately 4.6 billion years. However, stars with large masses live shorter lives. They consume thermonuclear fuel very rapidly and pass through their evolutionary stages within a few million years.
Researchers believe that the drastic changes observed in the characteristics of the star "WOH G64" may be related to it shedding a large part of its outer envelope into space. One possible cause is interaction with another star. Another theory is related to the "superwind" phase.
It is not possible to predict exactly when the explosion will occur. If "WOH G64" explodes in the near future, it will be a rare observation of the destruction of a giant star located outside the Milky Way galaxy, and will allow scientists to better understand the final stages of the evolution of the largest stars.
