Astronomers harness powerful energy dark energy camera The Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope (DECam) at Cerro Tororo Inter-American Observatory, a program of NSF's NOIRLab, Huge 1.3 gigapixel image The Vela supernova remnant is the remains of a giant star that exploded in the constellation Vela about 11,000 years ago.
This DECam image shows the Vela supernova remnant, the remnant of a supernova explosion 800 light-years away in the southern constellation of Vela. Image credits: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA / TA University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor and NSF's NOIRLab / M. Zamani and D. de Martin, NSF's NOIRLab.
of Bella supernova remnantVela SNR for short, is one of the most well-studied supernova remnants in the sky and one of the closest supernova remnants to Earth.
Its progenitor star exploded 11,000 to 12,300 years ago south of the constellation Vore.
The association of this supernova remnant with the bella pulsar, made by Australian astronomers in 1968, provided direct observational evidence that supernovae form neutron stars.
“When this star exploded 11,000 years ago, its outer layer was violently stripped away and splattered around, creating a shock wave that can still be seen today,” the astronomers said in a statement.
“As the shock wave spreads into the surrounding region, hot, energetic gas flies away from the point of explosion, becomes compressed and interacts with the interstellar medium, producing the blue and yellow thread-like filaments seen in the image. .”
“Vela SNR is a gigantic structure, almost 100 light-years long and 20 times the diameter of a full moon in the night sky.”
“Although the star's final moments were dramatic, he did not completely disappear.”
“After the outer layers were shed, the star's core collapsed into a neutron star, an ultra-dense ball of protons and electrons that collided with each other to form neutrons.”
“The neutron star, named Bela pulsar, is now a supercondensed object containing the mass of a Sun-like star in a sphere just a few kilometers in diameter.”
“The Bela pulsar, located in the lower left region of this image, is a relatively faint star and indistinguishable from the thousands of objects next to it.”
Vela SNR's new image is the largest DECam image ever published, containing an astonishing 1.3 gigapixels.
“The striking reds, yellows, and blues in this image were achieved by using three DECam filters, each collecting a specific color of light,” the researchers said.
“Separate images were taken with each filter and stacked on top of each other to produce this high-resolution color image showing the intricate web-like filaments snaking throughout the expanding gas cloud.”
Source: www.sci.news
