Space

The Fascinating Detailed Image Of The Supernova Remnant 'Spaghetti Nebula'

Elaine Hannah
First Posted: May 19, 2017 04:50 AM EDT

The supernova remnant known as Simeis 147 is dubbed as "Spaghetti Nebula." It is located toward the boundary of the constellations Taurus and Auriga.

The Spaghetti Nebula is also called Sharpless 2-240 or SNR G180.0-0.17. It is a supernova remnant in the Milky Way galaxy. Simeis 147 was found at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in 1952 through the 25-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

Its nebulous region is quite massive that features spherical shell and filamentary structure. It is about almost 3 degrees or 6 full moons on the sky in diameter. This nebula has an approximate distance of 3,000 light-years and has an estimated age of about 40,000 years.

The image shows and enhances the reddish emission from ionized hydrogen atoms to observe the glowing gas. This supernova also left behind a rotating pulsar or neutron star. This is the only remains of the original star's core, according to NASA.

A supernova is a cosmic phenomenon that happens in the last stellar evolutionary stages of a giant star's life. It is characterized by one massive explosion that triggers the sudden appearance of a new bright star before gradually diminish over many weeks or months.

The word "nova" is a Latin word meaning "new." In astronomy, it refers to be a temporary new bright star. The "super" in supernovae signifies far less luminous. Meanwhile, the term supernova was established by Walter Baade and Frits Zwicky in 1931.

During the last thousand years, there were only three Milky Way supernova that were observed through naked eye. Many were seen in other galaxies utilizing telescopes. The Kepler's Supernova in 1604 was the most recent that was directly seen in the Milky Way. In the statiscally observation of supernovae, it indicates that supernova happens on average about three times every century in the Milky Way.

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