About 11,000 years ago, a massive star exploded as a supernova in the vicinity of Earth. Today, astronomers revealed a high-resolution image of what remains.
It is about 800 light-years away from Earth. What's left of a massive star that exploded in a supernova about 11,000 years ago. On one side is the constellation Sails, hence its name Vela (XYZ). He is one of remainingremaining One of the supernovas closest to us. They have already been photographed and studied extensively. But the Dark energy camera (DECam) installed on a telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (Chile) today presents us with one of the largest and most detailed images ever obtained.
High definition image thanks to a powerful tool
It appears as evidence of DECam's exceptional capabilities. Telescope equipped with MirrorMirror Four meters in diameter. a lenslens Corrector approximately one meter in diameter. And about sixty freight transport devices (Convention to Combat DesertificationConvention to Combat Desertification) which serves as “eyeseyes » From the camera. The result: photos at 570 megapixels each. Images that can be imposed as was the case here. To get a Vela (XYZ) image which ultimately consists of approximately 1.3 gigapixels.
We detect blue and yellow threads there. It is the result of compression of the interstellar medium by GasGas Hot, violently thrown into space by the explosion of a massive star thousands of years ago. The supernova remnant now extends approximately 100 light-years. This is equivalent to 20 times the diameter of the full moon.
Inside the secrets of supernova remnants
Below, to the left of the image of Vela (XYZ), the pulsar born from the supernova explosion. Super dense object. Subordinate MassMass A star in a body no more than a few kilometers across. the PulsarPulsarVela is still spinning very fast. It sweeps the sky at least 11 times per second!
