All images courtesy of CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA. Image processing by T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Approximately 11,000 years ago in Vela, a constellation about 800 light-years away from Earth, a star exploded. The supernova that emerged is the subject of an enormous new composite showcasing what astronomers refer to as a “cosmic corpse” in extraordinary detail.
Zooming in on the ghostly gas tendrils and dust, the 1.3-gigapixel colorized image is the largest ever from the Dark Energy Camera at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The exceptionally high-resolution image offers unprecedented looks at the remnants of the enormous Vela supernova, an interstellar structure stretching almost 100 light-years across with a diameter twenty times that of a full moon. It’s also one of the closest to Earth.
Astronomers released a detailed diagram along with the full image that points out specific structures within the supernova. When the star originally exploded, its outer edges were ripped off and launched outward, emitting a shockwave that appears as a bright band that cuts down the center. The stringy blue and yellow components nearby are a mix of hot gas from the shockwave and interstellar matter. Researchers explain further:
After shedding its outer layers, the core of the star collapsed into a neutron star—an ultra-dense ball consisting of protons and electrons that have been smashed together to form neutrons. The neutron star, named the Vela Pulsar, is now an ultra-condensed object with the mass of a star like the Sun contained in a sphere just a few kilometers across. Located in the lower left region of this image, the Vela Pulsar is a relatively dim star that is indistinguishable from its thousands of celestial neighbors. Still reeling from its explosive death, the Vela Pulsar spins rapidly on its own axis and possesses a powerful magnetic field.
It’s worth exploring the incredible galactic details of the full image available from NOIRlab. For more on how the Dark Energy Camera works, visit PetaPixel.
Supernova remnant
A galaxy far, far away
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