Hubble lifts a corner of the veil

This veil is the sting of a supernova explosion that occurred roughly ten thousand years in the past.

The house photograph of the week is a phenomenal picture of a part of a supernova remnant within the constellation Swan. It is in regards to the Veil Nebula. This remnant is over 2,000 light-years from Earth, however is over 100 light-years throughout. Seen from the Earth’s floor, the Veil Nebula (or Cirrus Nebula) is about as huge as six full moons facet by facet. The Hubble telescope zooms in too far and is due to this fact unable to seize all the nebula in a single picture. That’s the reason we see right here a small element of this stunning object.

As soon as upon a time, the location of the supernova remnant was dwelling to a huge star. This large was twenty instances extra huge than our solar. Earlier than this star exploded, the star produced a robust photo voltaic wind. Astronomers suppose the electrically charged particles made a big gap within the surrounding interstellar fuel. After the supernova explosion, the shock wave from this explosion reached the ensuing rim of interstellar fuel. Interplay between the shock wave and the rim has led to the creation of the colourful Veil Nebula.

Do you know that the Veil Nebula continues to be rising? Materials within the outer rim of the supernova remnant travels at a pace of 350 kilometers per second.

Cannot get sufficient of it? Hubble already made it in 2015 a phenomenal photograph of the Veil Nebula.