Credit: ESA/Hubble & Nasa, R. Sankrit
Takeaway Keyway:
- An explosion of supernova, from a huge star, occurred about 2,400 years ago.
- Its light reached the earth about 10,000 years ago, appearing brighter than Venus.
- The remains of the explosion are now visible as the veil nebula.
- The Hubble space telescope captured a detailed image of a part of the Velo nebula.
About 10,000 years ago, a new star appeared in what we now recognize as Cygnus the Swan. It was the light of a supernova explosion that occurred about 2,400 years earlier, when a star about 20 times the mass of the sun had exhausted its nuclear fuel. This caused the collapse of the nucleus, triggering a shock wave that made the rest of the star aside. When the light reached the earth, it shone brighter than Venus and would be visible during the day; Today the astronomers see the unwilling remains of the star like the nebula veil, a cloud of bright gases that extends for 3 °, six times the diameter of the full moon.
The Hubble space telescope captured this small section of the veil located near the south edge -eastern of the nebula. The image combines the light emitted by hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen atoms.
