The explosive life of massive stars photographed - Space and Astronomy. Images taken by Ophiuchus, Wr 124 and Cassiopeia summarize three crucial moments in the life cycle of these stars.
By enlarging the image you can see a kind of hourglass: it is a disk of dust around a star, from which planets could be born, in a process that takes millions of years. With a mass more than 20 times that of our Sun, WR 124 is a huge star – says the astronomer – and is a million times brighter.