This image shows a spectacular view of the orange and pink clouds that make up what remains after the explosive death of a massive star — the Vela supernova remnant. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit
Key Points:
- The ESO has captured an incredibly detailed view of the Vela supernova remnant.
- The wispy structure of pink and orange clouds is all that remains of a massive star that exploded about 11,000 years ago.
- At only 800 light-years, this dramatic supernova remnant is one of the closest known to Earth.
Just in time for Halloween, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has captured and released an image that shows the ghostly remains of a gigantic star in vivid detail.
The wispy structure of pink and orange clouds is all that remains of a massive star that ended its life in a powerful explosion around 11,000 years ago. When the most massive stars reach the end of their life, they often go out with a bang, in an outburst called a supernova. These explosions cause shock waves that move through the surrounding gas, compressing it and creating intricate thread-like structures. The energy released heats the gaseous tendrils, making them shine brightly, as seen in this image.
The 554-million-pixel image captures an incredibly detailed view of the Vela supernova remnant, named after the southern constellation Vela (The Sails). At only 800 light-years, this dramatic supernova remnant is one of the closest known to Earth. It’s also very large—you could fit nine full Moons in this entire image, and the whole cloud is even larger.
This image is a mosaic of observations taken with the wide-field camera OmegaCAM at the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The 268-million-pixel camera can take images through several filters that let through light of different colors. In this particular image of the Vela remnant, four different filters were used, represented here by a combination of magenta, blue, green and red.
Information provided by ESO.