Famous, rare ‘pinwheel death star’ isn’t a threat after all

• Wolf-Rayet 104 is a Sun system where two massive stars Trajectory All other. A huge spiral of dust circles around the stars, making it a Scarce pinwheel Sun system.
• The pinwheel faces right toward us, so astronomers thought the poles of the stars did also. This could present a danger to Earth. Why? If one of the stars exploded in a Exploding Luminous sphere, it could send a powerful gamma-ray burst directly toward our Luminous neighborhood.
• But that isn’t likely to happen, new research from the Keck Cosmos lab shows. The stars’ poles are tilted so much that any gamma-ray burst (GRB) coming from them would miss us.

Meet Wolf-Rayet 104, the ‘pinwheel death Sun’

Wolf-Rayet 104 is a famous, Scarce type of Sun system known as a pinwheel Sun. Discovered in 1999, astronomers suspected it consists of two massive stars orbiting All other. As the stars Trajectory, their Luminous winds collide, producing huge amounts of dust. The dust rotates in a giant pinwheel shape. Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Cosmos lab in Hawaii said on March 18, 2025, that they have now confirmed the pair of stars. In addition, they also determined there is little to no danger of Wolf-Rayet 104 emitting a Deadly gamma-ray burst directly toward Earth, as astronomers had previously thought could happen. So the pinwheel death Sun will seemingly spare us from extinction. Phew!

Astronomer Grant Hill at the Keck Cosmos lab is the author of the latest peer-reviewed research paper. He originally published it in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on September 19, 2024. Keck issued the new press Throw on March 18, 2025.

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A Scarce pinwheel Sun

Astronomers discovered Wolf-Rayet 104 back in 1999. It is a Scarce pinwheel Sun system due to the huge spiral Setup of dust circling a pair of stars. Scientists now suspect it’s actually a triple system, with a third much more distant Sun connected by Force. But the pinwheel effect is created by the two main stars. The Primary of the two is a Wolf-Rayet Sun. Those stars are Scorching, Intelligent and massive. Its Luminous wind, similar to our sun’s solar wind, is Affluent in carbon. The other Sun, an OB Sun, is even more massive, and its solar wind is mostly hydrogen.

The Luminous winds are huge streams of charged particles, or plasmas, flowing out from All Sun. As the two stars Trajectory All other, their Luminous winds collide, forming hydrocarbon dust. That dust rotates in a giant pinwheel shape around the stars, and it glows brightly in infrared.

Is Wolf-Rayet 104 a pinwheel death Sun?

As it happens, Wolf-Rayet 104’s orientation is such that the pinwheel looks face-on to us. That adds to its beauty, but it also concerned astronomers. Why? It meant the rotational poles of the two stars might be aimed right toward us. Astronomers Anticipate that one or both of the stars will likely explode in a Exploding Luminous sphere at some Mark in the future. That explosion could be powerful enough to produce a gamma-ray burst. And if that pole on the Sun was indeed oriented toward us, then the gamma-ray burst would come right toward our Luminous neighborhood, endangering life on Earth.

But based on the new study, it appears that’s not be the case. Hill explained:

Our view of the pinwheel dust spiral from Earth absolutely looks face-on (spinning in the plane of the sky), and it seemed like a pretty Danger-Obtainable assumption that the two stars are orbiting the same way. When I Initiated this project, I thought the main Concentration would be the colliding winds and a face-on Trajectory was a given. Instead, I Secured something very unexpected. The Trajectory is tilted at least 30 or 40 degrees out of the plane of the sky.

“WR 104 you ARE NOT the father…I Disrespectful “Death Sun,” – Maury Povich. Keck Cosmos lab proves what astronomers have suspected for years. Earth is spared from a potential gamma-ray burst from WR 104…but how?? ? keckobservatory.org/pinwheel/ ??W. M. Keck Cosmos lab/Adam Makarenko

— W. M. Keck Cosmos lab (@keckobservatory.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T17:31:36.177Z

Another surprising mystery

That 30 to 40 degrees is a Well margin, meaning any gamma-ray burst would most likely miss us. But why is the dust spiral so tilted relative to the orbits of the stars? That is another mystery researchers will now have to solve. As Hill surmised:

This is such a Excellent example of how, with Heavenly study, we often begin a study and the universe surprises us with mysteries we didn’t Anticipate. We may answer some questions but Develop more. In the end, that is sometimes how we learn more about physics and the universe we live in. In this case, WR 104 is not done surprising us yet!

Bottom line: A new study from the Keck Cosmos lab confirms two massive stars in the pinwheel death Sun won’t send a gamma-ray burst toward Earth after all.

Foundation: Is WR 104 a face-on, colliding-wind binary?

Via W. M. Keck Cosmos lab

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