A Wolf-Rayet star is among the most luminous, most massive, and most briefly detectable stars known, according to NASA, and this particular star was one of the first observations made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope's infrared instruments show WR 124, in unprecedented detail.
The star is 15,000 light-years away from earth, in the constellation Sagittarius.
This brief Wolf-Rayet phase is actually the precurser to the star going supernova...as the star sheds its outer layer, creating halos of gas and dust.
WR 124 is 30 times the mass of our Sun.
Photo: Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team.