NASA telescope captures tattered remnant of cosmic explosion

This throwback picture shows the tattered remnant of a titanic stellar explosion called a supernova. DEM L249, located within the constellation Mensa and within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), is an unusual supernova remnant, which is thought to have been created by a Type 1a supernova during the death throes of a white dwarf.

According to NASA and ESA, in a binary system, a white dwarf can gravitationally pull so much matter from its companion that it reaches critical mass and explodes, ejecting a vast amount of material into space in the process.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this image during a systematic search of the LMC for the surviving companions of white dwarf stars which have gone supernova. LMC is a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way only 160,000 light-years from Earth and is an ideal natural laboratory where astronomers can study the births, lives, and deaths of stars, as this region, is nearby, oriented towards Earth, and contains relatively little light-absorbing interstellar dust.

Happy #FourthOfJuly! 🇺🇸Here’s a red, white, and blue Hubble view of DEM L249, showing stars and the aftermath of a supernova.Find out more: https://t.co/ebixKP7hl9 pic.twitter.com/wAfSmPlbCy

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) July 4, 2022