I’ve always been a sucker for supernova remnants.
When a massive star reaches the end of its life, the core collapses and releases vast amounts of energy. The explosion tears the star apart, and after years — sometimes hundreds or even thousands of years– the result is an ethereal, wispy cloud of gas whose fate is to merge with the gas and dust that lies between the stars.
The Hubble Space Telescope Heritage team just released this image of a remnant in a nearby galaxy.
There’s a huge amount of science and interesting things to talk about in pictures like this. But this time, I’ll just say that it’s awfully pretty, isn’t it?
October 4th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
It’s with pretty pictures like that that I love putting my brain to “off” and just say “ooh, shiny”.
Worthy of being a wallpaper for sure.
October 4th, 2005 at 1:16 pm
A couple of summers ago, I plugged a new OIII filter into my scope and went hunting for the Veil Nebula. It was beautiful. Seeing it turned out to have been one of those amazing moments that stay with you for the rest of your life. There is something profoundly cool about supernova remnants.
-Andy B
October 4th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
And it’s not even Thursday yet!
(Heritage usually releases their monthly pics on the first Thursday, but sometimes they stray.)
It is a beautiful pic. Supernovae and planetary nebulae are among my favorites. Although Chandra’s previous release of Tycho’s supernova remnant is more of a Wow!-er to me:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/tycho/tycho.jpg
October 4th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
I had to check twice to make sure the embargo ended today. I was surprised.
October 4th, 2005 at 2:01 pm
“Remnants of the Day”? Nice pun on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel which supringly readable and enjoyable for for being recommended by the high literature types.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679731725/badastronomy/
October 4th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Supernova remnants are usually cool to look at. There’s quite a few that look like an artists hand has been at work, yet they are created by little more than immensly powerful explosions/implosions. Wonderful to look at.
Let just hope we dont have one actually going off anywhere close by.
What are the odds of Eta Carinae going pop any time soon?
Does BA have any thoughts on Eta Carinae?
Folcrom
October 4th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Hee hee… in fact, I do. They’ll be featured in an article in Sky and Telescope sometime next year. Stay Tuned.
October 4th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
Its a novel? I thought it was a play on the the Corpse Bride song “Remains of the Day”. When I saw the title I nearly had a breakdown, because it now seems everyone in america except me has seen that movie.
Continuing on the Tim Burton theme, does anyone else think it looks like the top of Jack Skellington’s head? Or is that just me?
Even if it only does to me, that is still an amazing photo (and my new background)
October 5th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Samara – it looks more like Jack Skellington that a lot of those pictures that say they are images of Jesus. Although, come to think of it …
October 6th, 2005 at 3:39 am
Books with pictures like these is what first got me interested in astronomy and science which in turn led me to sceptical thinking.
In the school library when all the other kids where engrossed in comic books, I was engrossed in cosmic books
October 6th, 2005 at 8:33 am
Astrophotography has fascinated me for a long time. I’ve been trying to do some as my free time permits. It’s a lot more difficult than I imagined to produce a good image.
I’ve had a few nice ones though. I’m quite fond of The Orion Nebula, which is probably the second thing every new astrophotographer shoots, right after the moon.
I’m hoping to get some help/training/pointers this winter and get some improved results. I really want to get a half-decent CCD for the back of my telescope as that will help a lot.
October 7th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
You said that this remnant was “in a nearby galaxy.” Which one? I didn’t know that we could resolve items this closely in even the closest galaxies.
Was it possibly a typo and you meant to say “nearby in our galaxy”?
October 10th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
Supernova Remnant N-132D is in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2005/30/
June 25th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Click on my name here to (hopefully – assuming the link works!) see the even more brain-ily spectacular 2010 June 22nd BA blog post titled “A vast cosmic cloudy brain looms in a nearby galaxy.”