astronomicalwonders:

A Wolf–Rayet star in the Large Magellanic Cloud

VFTS 682 is a Wolf-Rayet star located in an active star-forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Wolf–Rayet stars are evolved, massive stars which are losing mass rapidly by means of a very strong stellar wind. They typically lose 10^{^(-5)}  solar masses a year, a billion times higher than the sun. Wolf–Rayet stars are also extremely hot, with surface temperatures in the range of 30,000 K to around 200,000 K. They are also highly luminous, from tens of thousands to several million times the luminosity of our Sun.

Credit: NASA/Hubble/Wikipedia