Zooming in on a Wolf–Rayet star in the remote NGP–190387 galaxy

This animation takes us on a journey to one of the Wolf–Rayet stars in NGP–190387, a galaxy so far away its light took over 12 billion years to reach us. The images at the start of the video are real astronomical observations, while the galaxy and its Wolf–Rayet star (too distant to be imaged clearly) are represented by means of artists' animations.

Wolf–Rayet stars are hot and massive, with lifespans of a few million years and are thought to end in dramatic supernova explosions. Recent ALMA observations have spotted fluorine in the gas clouds of NGP–190387, making it the most distant detection of this element in a star-forming galaxy. This result suggests short-lived Wolf–Rayet stars may form most of the fluorine in galaxies.