Steamy Star

The star known as CW Leonis is in hot water. It is surrounded by hot water vapor, which may be created by energy from other stars. CW Leonis is about 500 light-years away. It is so large that if it took the Sun’s place in our solar system it would extend beyond the orbit of Mars. But it is surrounded by clouds of dark soot, which show up as bright tendrils in this infrared image. The orbiting Herschel telescope, which snapped this image, found that water vapor in ths clouds is quite hot, which means it is quite close to the star. [ESA/PACS/SPIRE]