A fast-moving star collides with interstellar gas, creating a spectacular arc shock
Zeta Ophiuchi’s multi-wavelength view. Credits: X-Rays: NASA/CXC/Dublin Inst. Advanced Studies/S. Green et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL/Spitzer Zeta Ophiuchi has an interesting life. It started out as a typical massive star about twenty times as massive as the sun. It spent its days happily orbiting a large companion star until its companion exploded as a supernova about a million years ago. The explosion took out Zeta Ophiuchi, so now he was speeding through interstellar space. Of course, supernovae also eject the outer layers of companion stars, so instead of empty space, our intrepid star is also traveling through the rest of the gas. As they say on Facebook, it’s complicated. And that’s great news for astronomers, as a recent study shows. Zeta Ophiuchi is most famous for the beautiful pictures above. By plowing through interstellar gas, the star has created heat shockwaves that shine in everything from infrared to X-rays. The