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.
2015 January 1

Vela Supernova Remnant

Image Credit & Copyright: CEDIC Team - Processing: Wolfgang Leitner
Explanation: The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs through this complex and beautiful
skyscape. At the northwestern edge of the constellation Vela (the Sails) the telescopic frame is
over 10 degrees wide, centered on the brightest glowing filaments of the Vela Supernova
Remnant, an expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the
supernova explosion that created the Vela remnant reached Earth about 11,000 years ago. In
addition to the shocked filaments of glowing gas, the cosmic catastrophe also left behind an
incredibly dense, rotating stellar core, the Vela Pulsar. Some 800 light-years distant, the Vela
remnant is likely embedded in a larger and older supernova remnant, the Gum Nebula
Tomorrow's picture: Trapezium

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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