Giant Star IRC+10216 (IMAGE)

European Space Agency

Giant Star IRC+10216

Caption

ESA’s Herschel infrared space observatory has shown that the dying star IRC+10216 is surrounded by a large volume of high-temperature water vapor. This color-coded image shows the star, surrounded by a clumpy envelope of dust, at three infrared wavelengths, taken by Herschel’s PACS and SPIRE instruments. The blue color represents the PACS 160 micron image, the green color is the SPIRE 250 micron image, and the red color the SPIRE 350 micron image.

Credit

ESA/PACS/SPIRE/MESS Consortia

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