Astronomy Picture of the Day 1-18-03

NASA ^ | 1-18-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 January 18

Filaments in the Cygnus Loop
Credit: William P. Blair and Ravi Sankrit (Johns Hopkins University), NASA

Explanation: Subtle and delicate in appearance, these are filaments of shocked interstellar gas -- part of the expanding blast wave from a violent stellar explosion. Recorded in November 1997 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope, the picture is a closeup of a supernova remnant known as the Cygnus Loop. The nearly edge-on view shows a small portion of the immense shock front moving toward the top of the frame at about 170 kilometers per second while glowing in light emitted by atoms of excited hydrogen gas. Not just another pretty picture, this particular image has provided some dramatic scientific results. In 1999, researchers used it to substantially revise downward widely accepted estimates of distance and age for this classic supernova remnant. Now determined to lie only 1,440 light-years away, the Cygnus Loop is thought to have been expanding for 5 - 10 thousand years.

[petuniasevan]

Here is a full view of the Veil Nebula portion of the Cygnus Loop. It's a Hubble image too.

Here's the whole Cygnus Loop.

[petuniasevan]

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[MeekOneGOP]

[xJones]

Now determined to lie only 1,440 light-years away, the Cygnus Loop is thought to have been expanding for 5 - 10 thousand years.

Only 5 - 10 thousand years old? The Cygnus Loop is a baby!

[RightWhale]

Now determined to lie only 1,440 light-years away, the Cygnus Loop is thought to have been expanding for 5 - 10 thousand years.

This would be in the time range to be part of the historical record.

[foolish-one]

Part of being able to truely appreciate these pictures is the realization of what they actually are (or were). This is so neat! Thanks.

[aruanan]

This would be in the time range to be part of the historical record.

This isn't the one described in some Chinese annals, is it?

[petuniasevan]

No. That would be the supernova of 1054, which is today's Crab Nebula.

[biblewonk]

All the good pictures are coming from the Hubble these days.

[RightWhale]

the one described in some Chinese annals

It would be tough to find an explicit record of this one, but it could have been noticed and been entered into the spoken tradition--mythology. The event was probably too far away to have had a significant effect aside from being visible.