APEP

Nov. 25, 2018

An international team of researchers with the help of European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope has revealed new findings about the star system named Apep, which is about 8,000 light years away from Earth and has “pinwheel” shaped dust winds around it.

Apep:

2XMM J160050.7–514245 star system is nicknamed Apep after the serpentine Egyptian god of chaos.
Apep is a triple star system containing a Wolf–Rayet binary and a third hot supergiant star orbiting the binary.
- e. Apep comprises of two hot, luminous stars - known to astronomers as Wolf-Rayets.
- Wolf-Rayet stars are extremely massive bluish stars, containing the mass of 10 to 15 suns.
Apep star system is located in the constellation of Norma i.e. around 8,000 light years from Earth.
The star system is surrounded by a vast complex of stellar wind and cosmic dust thrown into space by the fast rotation speed of the binary's primary star and formed into a "pinwheel" shape by the secondary star's influence.
Recent development:
- According to the recent studies of the system published in November 2018, Wolf–Rayet stars with fast rotations are theoretically capable of producing a Gamma-ray burst during a supernova, and the system has been identified as a progenitor for a Gamma-ray burst.
- However, he primary star's axial tilt of 30° away from Earth means that a potential Gamma-ray burst would not impact life on Earth.