One of the largest stars in the known universe is undergoing a strangely rapid transformation and may soon explode as a supernova. First catalogued in 1981, WOH G64 sits some 160,000 light years ...

This image is the first-ever closeup of a star outside the Milky Way. The bright oval is gas and dust enveloping WOH G64, suggesting the star is undergoing its final stages before it erupts into a ...

News World News Science Astronomers take the first close-up picture of a star outside our galaxy WOH G64 lies within the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the small galaxies that orbits the Milky Way ...

The new image also revealed that WOH G64 has dimmed significantly over the past 10 years. This is likely because of its egg-shaped cocoon, which is made from gas and dust shed from the star's ...

In their final life stages, red supergiants like WOH G64 shed their outer layers of gas and dust in a process that can last thousands of years. "This star is one of the most extreme of its kind, and ...

WOH G64 caught the eye of scientists in 2005 and 2007, when they began using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer to study the star.

During this time, however, a picture of the star did not yet exist. According to scientists, about 24 zoomed-in images of stars in the Milky Way have been taken, but images of stars in other galaxies ...