image British astronomers have taken the first pictures of one of the hottest stars in the Galaxy. The temperature on its surface is 360,032F (200,000C), 35 times hotter than the Sun.

The mysterious dying star at the heart of the Bug Nebula — 3,500 light years away in the constellation Scorpius — has never been seen before as it is hidden behind a cloud of dust and ice.

A team of astronomers at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre of Astrophysics, led by Professor Albert Zijlstra, recorded the images using the recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope.

They will be published in the Astrophysical Journal next week. Further information and high-resolution stills of the star are available free of charge for publication at http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/news/2009/BugNebula/

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