Supernova Remnant Simeis 147

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

January 13 is in the future.
See the explanation. Clicking on the picture will bring you to the download page.
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The Supernova Remnant Simeis is a Remnant.
The image is copyrighted by Jason Dain.

It's easy to get lost following the intricate, looping, twisting filaments in this detailed image of supernova remnant Simeis 147. The Spaghetti Nebula is also known as Sharpless 2-240. It is seen toward the boundary of the constellations and covers 6 full moons on the sky. The stellar debris cloud's estimated distance is 3000 light-years. The red emission from ionized hydrogen atoms and doubly ionized oxygen atoms in faint blue-green colors trace the shocked, glowing gas in the image data taken through narrow-band filters. Light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth 40,000 years ago, and the supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years. The expanding remnant is not the only thing that happened. The original star's core was left behind as a result of the catastrophe.

The picture is in space.

Robert Nemiroff is an author and Jerry Bonnell is an editor.
Phillip Newman has specific rights.
NASA has a privacy policy on the internet.
There is a service at NASA.
& Michigan Tech. U.

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

January 14
See the explanation. Clicking on the picture will bring you to the download page.
The highest resolution version is available.

The Spanish Dancer is a spiral.
Mark Hanson and Mike Selby are the authors of the image.

An island universe of billions of stars is located in the southern constellation Dorado. The Spanish Dancer galaxy is seen from our perspective. A gorgeous grand design spiral, this galaxy's two graceful spiral arms are traced by bright blue star clusters, pinkish starforming regions, and swirling cosmic dust lanes. One of the closest and bright Seyfert galaxies is the spiral of NGC 1566, which has a flaring center. It is likely to have a central black hole that iswreaking havoc on surrounding stars, gas, and dust. The stars are well within the Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture is light-weekend.

Robert Nemiroff is an author and Jerry Bonnell is an editor.
Phillip Newman has specific rights.
NASA has a privacy policy on the internet.
There is a service at NASA.
& Michigan Tech. U.