Filaments of the Cygnus Loop
Explanation:
What lies at the edge of an expanding supernova?
Subtle and delicate in appearance, these
ribbons of shocked interstellar gas are part of
a blast wave at the expanding edge of a violent
stellar explosion
that would have been easily visible to humans during the
late stone age, about 20,000 years ago.
The featured image was recorded by the
Hubble Space Telescope and is a closeup of the outer edge of
a supernova remnant known as the Cygnus Loop or
Veil Nebula.
The filamentary shock front is
moving toward
the top of the frame at about 170 kilometers per second,
while glowing in light emitted by atoms of excited
hydrogen gas.
The distances to stars thought to be interacting with the
Cygnus Loop
have recently been found by the Gaia mission to be about 2400 light years distant.
The whole
Cygnus Loop spans six
full Moons across the sky, corresponding to about 130
light years,
and parts can be seen with a small telescope toward the
constellation
of the Swan (Cygnus).
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
