First Detailed Image Captures Star on Brink of Supernova Beyond Milky Way

Astronomers have captured the first-ever close-up image of a star outside the Milky Way, WOH G64, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Using the GRAVITY instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, they observed a dusty cocoon around the star, indicating it is in the final stages before a supernova. This red supergiant, over 1,500 times the size of the sun, has shown significant changes over the past decade, providing a rare opportunity to study a star's life in real time.