Veiled Fish
by CritterKeeper on Feb.08, 2010, under Water Creatures
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Wispy filaments of the Veil Nebula resemble a fish with multi-colored fins in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The scattered pieces of the Veil Nebula are all that remains of a brilliant supernova that exploded 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. The entire nebula spans a huge area in the sky equivalent to six full moons.
Explore the fine filaments in the Veil Nebula. What other patterns do you see in this cloud of gas and dust?
Stars, like people, are born and die. Some stars like our Sun have lifespans of about 10 billion years. But other stars that are much larger and more massive than our Sun burn their fuel so rapidly that they live for only a few million years. These huge stars, 10 to 100 times the size of our Sun, explode in supernova explosions so bright that they briefly outshine an entire galaxy. From Earth, the supernova that created the Veil Nebula would have been visible even during the daytime, shining as brightly as a crescent Moon.
The temperatures and pressures inside a supernova explosion are essential for making all chemical elements heavier than iron. Supernovae are the main producers of oxygen in the universe. They also forge the elements lead, copper, silver and gold. The supernova explosion that created the Veil Nebula created a bubble of gas and dust in space about 50 light-years across. It continues to expand even now, spreading elements into the Milky Way to become new stars, planets and even people one day.
Also known as the Cygnus Loop, the Veil Nebula lies about 1,500 light-years from Earth toward the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.
:Cygnus Loop, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, supernova, Veil Nebula
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Thanks for dropping by! This site combines incredible imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and other great observatories with the imagination of children. Explore and share the patterns you see in the nebula, galaxies and star clusters.Note to Parents and Educators:
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