A giant ghostly bird

The Vela constellation is visible with the naked eye in the southern sky, but you might miss a lot of details hidden there, like those shown in this Picture of the Week. This is a small patch of the Vela supernova remnant, the intricate leftovers of the explosion of a massive star 11 000 years ago. This image is part of a huge and detailed mosaic captured with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Chilean desert.

Pink and orange filamentary clouds swarm around in this picture, resembling the ghostly shadow of a cosmic bird with wide orange wings, a long pink body, and a bright pinkish star as an eye. A myriad of stars are sprinkled all over the image.

When massive stars reach the end of their life they explode as supernovae, expelling their outer layers. These explosions send out shock waves that move through the surrounding gas, compressing and reshaping it. This is what creates the intricate structure of filaments seen here, which shine brightly because of the energy released during the explosion.

Crediti:

ESO/VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: CASU

Riguardo l'immagine

Identificazione:potw2403a
Tipo:Osservazione
Data di rilascio:Lunedì 15 Gennaio 2024 06:00
Grandezza:6404 x 6578 px

Riguardo all'oggetto

Nome:Vela Supernova Remnant
Tipo:Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Supernova Remnant
Constellation:Vela
Categoria:Nebulae

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Coordinate

Position (RA):8 34 15.09
Position (Dec):-44° 23' 4.81"
Field of view:23.55 x 24.19 arcminutes
Orientazione:Il Nord è a 0.5° a sinistra della verticale

Colori e filtri

BandaLunghezza d'ondaTelescopio
Ottico
u
350 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Ottico
g
480 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Ottico
r
625 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Ottico
H-alpha
659 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM
Ottico
i
770 nmVLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM