Sometimes you’ve got to bloom before you glow. 🌟 ...just like this rare Wolf-Rayet star did before going supernova. 15,000 light years away from the constellation Sagittarius, WR 124 shed its outer layers, resulting in halos of gas and dust that appear like a blooming flower—a fleeting phase that happens to only some stars before they explode. In this composite image from NASAChandraXray, NASAWebb and WISE, WR 124 gleams as dozens of other bright stars surround it. X-rays from Chandra are colorized purple, while infrared frequencies captured from WISE are blue. Observations from Webb’s Near-Infrared and Mid-Infrared instruments are red, green, and blue. The star itself is 30 times the mass of our Sun and has shed 10 Suns’ worth of material so far. As the gas moves away and cools, cosmic dust forms, showering astronomers with a deeper insight into a crucial period in the early history of our universe. Stars similar to WR 124 first seeded the young universe with heavy elements for...