2024-03-16 20:04:25
About 11,000 years ago, a massive star exploded as a supernova in Earth’s vicinity. And astronomers today revealed a high-resolution image of what remains.
It is about 800 light years from Earth. What remains of a massive star that exploded in a supernova about 11,000 years ago. On the side of the constellation of Sails, hence its name, Vela (XYZ). And it is one of the closest supernova remnants to us. It has, in fact, already been photographed and studied extensively. But the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) installed on a telescope at the Inter-American Observatory of Cerro Tololo (Chile) today offers us one of the largest and most detailed images ever obtained.
A high definition image thanks to a powerful instrument
It appears as proof of the exceptional capabilities of the DECam. A telescope equipped with a mirrormirror four meters in diameter. A corrective lens almost a meter in diameter. And around sixty charge transfer devices (CCDCCD) which act as the “eyeseyes” of the camera. Result: images of 570 megapixels each. Images that can be superimposed as was the case here. To obtain an image of Vela (XYZ) which ultimately consists of almost 1.3 gigapixels.
We discover blue and yellow filaments there. They are the result of the compression of the interstellar medium by the hot gas violently projected into space by the explosion of the massive star thousands of years ago. The supernova remnant now extends nearly 100 light years. This is the equivalent of 20 times the diameter of the Full Moon.
Inside the secrets of a supernova remnant
Below, to the left of the image of Vela (XYZ), the pulsar which was born from the supernova explosion. An ultra-dense object. The massmass of a star in a body only a few kilometers across. The Vela pulsar is still rotating very quickly. It sweeps the sky no less than 11 times per second!
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