INBOX ASTRONOMY
Living on the Edge: Supernova Bubble Expands in New Hubble Time-Lapse Movie
Release date: Thursday, September 28, 2023 10:00:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
20,000-Year-Old Explosion Continues Expanding Into Space
The abrupt, explosive death of a massive star, called a supernova, is one of the biggest blasts in the universe since the big bang. What's left behind are shredded stellar remnants resembling a fluffy cotton ball. The explosion expands from a smudge of light into a wispy, entangled cobweb of glowing gasses.
One of the nearest supernova remnants is the Cygnus Loop, located high in the summer sky. It has ballooned to 120 light-years in diameter. The energy needed to inflate such a huge structure is beyond imagination.
If it could be seen with the naked eye, the Cygnus Loop would be the angular diameter of six full Moons stretched across the sky. Put another way, it would appear to be the width of three fingers held at arm's length. Given its size, the Cygnus Loop is a favorite target of amateur star gazers.
Astronomers used the power of the Hubble Space Telescope to zoom in for a close-up look at one sliver of the nebula. They found gossamer filaments resembling wrinkles in a bedsheet stretched across two light-years. The filaments are at the outer edge of the expanding bubble, plowing into interstellar space.
Analyzing the shock wave's location, astronomers found that the filaments haven't slowed down at all in the last 20 years of Hubble observations. The filaments haven't even changed shape. The material is speeding into interstellar space at over half a million miles per hour – fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in less than half an hour!
Find additional articles, images, and videos at
HubbleSite.org
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