Breathtaking, finely detailed images of the Veil Nebula-part of supernova remnant Cygnus Loop-captured by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope present threads and filaments of ionized gas.
Using new processing techniques, the new images provide a fresh, more remarkable perspective of the Veil Nebula, a small portion of which was featured in previous Hubble photos.
Veil Nebula Part of Expanding Supernova
The Cygnus Loop is an immense donut-shaped nebula 2,400 light-years away from Earth. Its blast wave continues to expand after a supernova explosion around 15,000 years ago.
It was named after its specific position in the northern constellation of Cygnus, covering an area that is 36 times larger than the Moon. The fast accelerating blast wave from the supernova plowed into a wall of cool, denser interstellar gas, thus emitting light.
