Before you think about living forever, you must keep in mind that even those enormous, imposing, and powerful balls of fire from the sky cease to exist at some point. That’s also available for our Sun, which is also a star. Stars end in a huge blast of energy called a supernova, which leaves behind a collapsed core (aka a neutron star) or a black hole.
The Vela supernova remnant is located in the southern constellation Vela, and it represents the outcome of a supernova that occurred over 11,000 years ago. Having a radius of 50 light-years across, the remnant also comes from a supernova that was located roughly 800 light-years away from Earth.
The European Southern Observatory takes a new photo at Vela
Using the powers of the VLT Survey Telescope, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) took a new photo of the Vela supernova remnant, where we can admire the shining threads of gas influenced by the heat.
The ESO compares the new photo of Vela with spider webs, wispy trails of ghosts, or magical dragons. The observatory even challenges the followers to say what they would compare the new photo with.
1/ A spooky spider web 🕷, magical dragons 🐉 or wispy trails of ghosts 👻? What do you see in this image of the Vela supernova remnant?
Look closer 🔗 https://t.co/K4Egr7UDmM
📷 @ESO /VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit pic.twitter.com/ECAgzbEBJ9— ESO (@ESO) October 31, 2022
We don’t know about you, but the photo seems to come just in time for Halloween since we can compare it to “wispy trails of ghosts.”
ESO released the following statement, as Optics.org quotes:
Nine full Moons would fit in in the entire image, and the whole cloud is even larger. At only 800 light-years away from Earth, this dramatic supernova remnant is one of the closest known to us.
Except for their obvious destructive outcome, supernovae even have positive roles in the Cosmos. They can release very heavy chemical elements into space and even participate in star formation. The best theory explaining the presence of elements like gold or plutonium on our planet is that they were created by supernovae and ejected into the Cosmos.
