Full Text:
By looking with binoculars at the faint southern constellation of Antliae (the Air Pump), the careful observer can spot a red star known as U Antliae. This unusual star, which is approximately 875 light-years from Earth, varies slightly in brightness from week to week. New observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveal a remarkably thin spherical shell surrounding this star.
The shell, as we observe it from Earth today, began forming about 2,700 years earlier when U Antliae went through a short (a few hundred years) but rapid period of mass loss. During this episode, the material from the star was ejected at very high speed, forming the round, thin and remarkably symmetrical shell we see today.Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/F. Kerschbaum
