This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a star known as R Sculptoris, a red giant located 1500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sculptor. Recent observations
have shown that the material surrounding R Sculptoris actually forms a
spiral structure — a phenomenon probably caused by a hidden companion
star orbiting the star. Systems with multiple stars often lead to
unusual or unexpected morphologies, as seen, for example, in the wide
range of striking planetary nebulae that Hubble has imaged.
R Sculptoris is an example of an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star.
All stars with initial masses up to about eight times that of the Sun
will eventually become red giants in the later stages of their lives.
They start to cool down and lose a large amount of their mass in a
steady, dense wind that streams outwards from the star.
With this
constant loss of material, red giants like R Sculptoris provide a good
portion of the raw materials — dust and gas — used for the formation of
new generations of stars and planets. They also show what is likely to
happen to the Sun in a few billion years from now, and help astronomers
to understand how the elements we are made up of are distributed
throughout the Universe.
R Sculptoris itself is located outside the plane of the Milky Way and
is easily visible using a moderately sized amateur telescope. In this
part of the sky far from the galactic plane, there are relatively few
stars but many faint and distant galaxies can be seen.
