Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star.
About 7,500 years ago that star exploded in a
supernova leaving the
Veil Nebula, also known as the Cygnus Loop.
At the time, the
expanding cloud
was likely as bright as a crescent
Moon, remaining
visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of
recorded history.
Today, the resulting
supernova remnant
has faded and is now visible only through a small telescope directed toward the
constellation of
Cygnus.
The remaining
Veil
Nebula is physically huge, however, and even though it lies about 1,400
light-years distant, it covers over five times the size of the
full Moon.
In images of the
complete Veil Nebula,
studious readers
should be able to identify the
Pickering's Triangle
component pictured above, a component named for a
famous astronomer and the wisp's
approximate shape.
The
above image is a mosaic from the 4-meter
Mayall telescope at the
Kitt Peak National Observatory
located in
Arizona,
USA.
