The Exotic Stellar Peacock and the Wolf — A Dusty Tail

An exotic stellar peacock 8,000 light years from Earth readies to erupt in an unprecedented explosion

The Apep star system readies to erupt in a titanic explosion. Image credit: Peter Tuthill/University of Sydney/European Southern Observatory

Apep is a rare stellar system containing a pair of doomed Wolf-Rayet stars, orbiting each other 8,000 light years from Earth. A new study reveals this system could erupt as the first gamma ray burst ever seen in our home galaxy.