A new image releasedfrom the Hubble Space Telescope is granting viewers a stunning viewthat encapsulates the beauty and complexity of the famous VeilNebula. The ghostly nebula represents the only evidence of atumultuous supernova that marked the death of an enormous star with amass roughly 20 times that of our Sun.
Appearing as a hauntingtangle of chaotic filamentary gas, the aptly-named Veil Nebulaexploded into existence roughly 8,100 years ago, and since then hasexpanded to stretch 110 light-years from end to end. The nebula sitson the edge of a bubble of low-density gas that was thrown out as thestar died, and we are now observing the shock-wave from this supernova interacting with a wall of cooler interstellar gas, and creatinglight in the process.
The Veil sits roughly2,100 light years away from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, andalthough the structure is nowhere near bright enough to be seen bythe naked eye, the vast structure covers an area the equivalent to sixfull moons in our sky.
The new release is amosaic of six images taken by Hubble capturing a two-light-yearexpanse of the leviathan nebula. Each color in the image correspondsto a different element – hydrogen filaments are shown in red,sulfur in green and oxygen as blue.
By comparing the newimage with an older shot of the same region taken in 1997, NASAscientists hope to gain an insight into the nebula's evolution up tothis point. Scroll down for a flythrough of the newly imaged sectionof the Veil Nebula.
Source: NASA
