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Breath of Life
Featured on June 22, 2010
A hot, massive star 'exhales' a breath of oxygen in this recent image from WISE, an orbiting infrared satellite that is surveying the entire sky. The oxygen forms the small red circle at the center of the image. The star, V385 Carinae, is 35 times as massive as the Sun and more than one million times brighter. It is manufacturing oxygen and other elements, and some of them flow out into space. Eventually, the star will explode as a supernova, seeding the galaxy with more oxygen and other life-giving elements. [NASA/JPL/UCLA]
