Wide-field view of the sky around Nova Vul 1670

This wide-field view shows the sky around the location of the historical exploding star Nova Vul 1670. The remains of the nova are only very faintly visible at the centre of this picture.

New observations made with APEX and other telescopes have now revealed that the star that European astronomers saw was not a nova, but a much rarer, violent breed of stellar collision. It was spectacular enough to be easily seen with the naked eye during its first outburst, but the traces it left were so faint that very careful analysis using submillimetre telescopes was needed before the mystery could finally be unravelled more than 340 years later.

Credit:

ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

About the Image

Id:eso1511d
Type:Observation
Release date:30 July 2018, 17:00
Related releases:eso1826, eso1511
Size:7129 x 6102 px

About the Object

Name:Nova Vulpeculae 1670
Type:Milky Way : Star : Type : Variable : Nova
Constellation:Vulpecula
Category:Stars

Image Formats

Large JPEG
23.0 MB
Screensize JPEG
747.8 KB

Zoomable


Wallpapers

1024x768
692.5 KB
1280x1024
1.2 MB
1600x1200
1.8 MB
1920x1200
2.2 MB
2048x1536
3.0 MB

Coordinates

Position (RA):19 47 37.88
Position (Dec):27° 19' 21.31"
Field of view:119.83 x 102.57 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.4° left of vertical

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Optical
B
479 nmDigitized Sky Survey 2
Optical
R
649 nmDigitized Sky Survey 2
Infrared
I
825 nmDigitized Sky Survey 2