Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2020 September 28

                        Filaments of the Cygnus Loop
    Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Blair; Acknowledgement: Leo Shatz

   Explanation: What lies at the edge of an expanding supernova? Subtle
   and delicate in appearance, these ribbons of shocked interstellar gas
   are part of a blast wave at the expanding edge of a violent stellar
   explosion that would have been easily visible to humans during the late
   stone age, about 20,000 years ago. The featured image was recorded by
   the Hubble Space Telescope and is a closeup of the outer edge of a
   supernova remnant known as the Cygnus Loop or Veil Nebula. The
   filamentary shock front is moving toward the top of the frame at about
   170 kilometers per second, while glowing in light emitted by atoms of
   excited hydrogen gas. The distances to stars thought to be interacting
   with the Cygnus Loop have recently been found by the Gaia mission to be
   about 2400 light years distant. The whole Cygnus Loop spans six full
   Moons across the sky, corresponding to about 130 light years, and parts
   can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Swan
   (Cygnus).

                     Tomorrow's picture: tilted planets
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.


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