Source: ESO Photo Release eso1136
The rare yellow hypergiant star called IRAS 17163-3907.
Image credits: ESO/E. Lagadec.
Astronomers have used ESO’s Very Large Telescope to image a colossal star that belongs to one of the rarest classes of stars in the Universe, the yellow hypergiants. The new picture is the best ever taken of a star in this class and shows for the first time a huge dusty double shell surrounding the central hypergiant. The star and its shells resemble an egg white around a yolky centre, leading the astronomers to nickname the object the Fried Egg Nebula. (learn more)
