The Hubble Space Telescope is nearing the end of its long-running mission and a new photo has been just released to make you happy. This is only a reminder of how much humanity benefitted from having an up-close view of the deep space.
The photo consists of a gorgeous orange ribbon which is a remnant of a dead star that has exploded in a supernova some 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.
The star resided in the northern constellation of Cygnus
From the perspective that we have here on Earth, the exploded star has once resided in the northern constellation of Cygnus also known as The Swan, according to the latest info coming from Mashable.
Here’s NASA‘s post.
Appearing like a delicate veil draped across the sky, this @NASAHubble image reminds us of the power of imagination. What does it look like to you?
In reality, it’s part of a supernova blast wave in the constellation Cygnus, ~2,400 light-years away: https://t.co/R81y1rR1tS pic.twitter.com/2eyktwoZEo— NASA (@NASA) August 30, 2020
It’s been also revealed that the star that has exploded was much larger than our sun – it was larger about 20 times. This is one of the ways in which a supernova occurs.
When a huge star expires, it triggers an explosion that sends stellar material hurtling outwards. The online publication that we mentioned above notes that during the thousands of years since the star said its goodbye, the blast wave that it emitted has expanded out 60 light-years. NASA notes that the ribbon-like appearance is the result of “the interaction of the ejected material and the low-density interstellar material swept up by the shockwave.”
In other words, we can also say that the elements that have been released by the exploding star have been mixed with gases and dust that are floating through space in order to give people this amazing image that you can see above.