Remnants of doomed star caught racing into space by Hubble telescope

 

Video Credit: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, ESA, STScI

The Hubble Space Telescope, a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA, has caught the tattered remnants of a doomed star continuing to race into space at breakneck speeds. The star exploded some 20,000 years ago and its supernova remnant is called the Cygnus Loop which lies about 1,500 light-years away and was discovered in 1784 by William Herschel.

Using Hubble, astronomers got a very close-up look at a very small slice at the edge of this expanding supernova bubble which is about 120 light-years in diameter and found gossamer filaments stretching across two light-years that look like twisted ribbons of light.

Following the analysis of the shock's location, the astronomers found that the filaments of gas and dust have not slowed down at all in the last 20 years of Hubble observations, and are 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. 

"Hubble is the only way that we can actually watch what's happening at the edge of the bubble with such clarity. The Hubble images are spectacular when you look at them in detail. They're telling us about the density differences encountered by the supernova shocks as they propagate through space, and the turbulence in the regions behind these shocks," said Ravi Sankrit, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

In this Hubble image, the filaments of glowing hydrogen are shown in orange (resembling lines in a wrinkled bedsheet) and cooling ionized oxygen in blue.

Feeling the need for speed! 💨 @NASAHubble has caught the action of a doomed star that exploded some 20,000 years ago as its tattered remnants continue racing into space at breakneck speeds.READ MORE >> https://t.co/JGrkJZf6qQ pic.twitter.com/tJq5TrRn1F

— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) October 2, 2023