New research on 'Death Star' that looks like a cosmic pinwheel reduces gamma-ray burst threat to Earth

An illustration of the so-called "Death Star" known as Wolf-Rayet 104 which appears like a cosmic pinwheel.

The "cosmic pinwheel" that astronomers feared could one day shower Earth with lethal gamma rays may not be as dangerous as once thought, a new study suggests.

At the heart of the pinwheel lies a pair of massive, hot stars locked in a binary orbit, located roughly 8,000 light-years from Earth in the Sagittarius constellation. Over the past two decades, observations have revealed that powerful plumes of gas emanating from both stars collide in the vast space between them, becoming entangled and creating a spiral stream of hot gas and dust in the sky.