One of the most famous and beautiful cosmic sights shows its colors in this new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The Veil Nebula is the remnant of a massive star which exploded in a supernova 10,000 years ago, leaving behind a striking structure of dust and gas that has a delicate draped shape from which the object gets its name.
The star which created the nebula was huge, at 20 times the mass of the sun, and its explosion was so epic it would have been brighter than Venus in the sky over Earth, despite being located 2,400 light-years away. Over time, the effects of that explosion have continued to spread, creating the structure we see today.
Hubble has imaged the Veil Nebula before, most recently in 2015, but this newer image zooms in on a smaller area of the nebula to show it in detail. Its colors also represent different elements which are present in the nebula, allowing scientists to track the distinct chemistry of the region.
You can see the image in full below:
“This view combines images taken in three different filters by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, highlighting emission from hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms. The image shows just a small fraction of the Veil Nebula; if you could see the entire nebula without the aid of a telescope, it would be as wide as six full Moons placed side-by-side,” Hubble scientists explain.
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“Although this image captures the Veil Nebula at a single point in time, it helps researchers understand how the supernova remnant evolves over decades. Combining this snapshot with Hubble observations from 1994 will reveal the motion of individual knots and filaments of gas over that span of time, enhancing our understanding of this stunning nebula.”
And you can also compare this image with the original images Hubble took back in 1994 and 1997, showing details of different parts of the nebula:
With more than 30 years elapsed between some of these images, scientists can see how the structure changes over time — and demonstrate how Hubble continues to provide stunning images of space, even as it approaches its 35th anniversary since launch.
