ESO's VLT captures beautiful aftermath of explosive stellar death

The European Southern Observatory's Picture of the Week features a small but very intricate portion of the Vela supernova remnant, the violent aftermath of an explosive stellar death, that lies some 800 light-years away from Earth.

Around 11,000 years ago, a massive star in the constellation Vela went supernova - an extremely bright, super-powerful explosion of a massive star. During this violent event, the star would have shined so brightly that it could be seen during the day.

The detailed and stunning view of both the gaseous filaments in the remnant and the bright blue stars in the foreground were captured using the OmegaCA instrument mounted on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO's Paranal Observatory.

According to ESO, the 286-million-pixel OmegaCAM can take images through several filters that each let the telescope observe the light emitted in a distinct colour. It can produce images 16 times bigger than the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

This image of the Vela supernova remnant was captured using four filters, represented by a combination of magenta, blue, green and red here.

Around 11 000 years ago, a massive star in the constellation Vela went supernova, shining so brightly that it could be seen on Earth during the day. 💥Since then, its remnant has been gracing the cosmos, as shown in this image by OmegaCAM at ESO's #VLT Survey Telescope. 🤩 1/ pic.twitter.com/NZ09muLPFJ

— ESO (@ESO) November 20, 2023