The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released a new video that offers images of a striking cosmic sight: a bubble-shaped supernova approximately 120 light-years in diameter expanding through space. This The Cygnus Loop Nebula, a supernova remnant It is about six full moons wide and is approximately 2,600 light-years distant from planet Earth.
The video includes images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 2001 and 2020; So by getting closer to the edge of the bubble, astronomers were able to show how the supernova shock wave expanded over time.
Scientists were able to measure the speed of the shock from the data and discovered: continues to accelerate at approximately 800 thousand kilometers per hour in the last 20 years. The acceleration is so fast that at this speed the journey between the Earth and the Moon will take less than half an hour.
“Hubble is the only way we can observe what’s happening at the edge of the bubble with such clarity. Hubble images are spectacular when we look at them in detail. They tell us about the density differences that supernova shocks encounter as they propagate,” said astronomer Ravi Sankrit of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore (USA). “It’s about space and the turbulence in the regions behind these shocks,” he said.
Expanding supernova
As William Blair of Johns Hopkins University explains: observation details a section of hydrogen filaments that resemble the appearance of a wrinkled sheet when viewed from the side. He also explained that filament oscillations occur when the shock wave ‘impacts’ on material in its interstellar path.
After the explosion, the shock continues to accelerate away from its original location until it reaches interstellar regions filled with gas and dust. In all regions where the shock wave spreads, This temporary phase has the capacity to heat the environment up to 555 thousand degrees Celsius. Additionally, slightly behind the shock wave, oxygen atoms begin to cool and emit a blue light.
“When we pointed Hubble at the Cygnus Loop, we knew it was the precursor to the shock front we wanted to study. It was a bonus when we got the first image and saw this incredible, delicate band of light. We didn’t know it would resolve this type of structure,” Blair said.
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Source: Tec Mundo
I’m Blaine Morgan, an experienced journalist and writer with over 8 years of experience in the tech industry. My expertise lies in writing about technology news and trends, covering everything from cutting-edge gadgets to emerging software developments. I’ve written for several leading publications including Gadget Onus where I am an author.
