Eso ha fornito un’immagine ipnotica del resto della Nebulosa delle Vele, il residuo di un’esplosione stellare avvenuta circa 11.000 anni fa. Questa esplosione di supernova ha generato un’energia tale da brillare 250 volte più di Venere e risultare così visibile di giorno.
Del resto della Nebulosa delle Vele, il Very Large Telescope ha catturato le nubi di polvere e il gas interstellare con un dettaglio unico e intricato. I filamenti gassosi del resto in rosa e le stelle in primo piano in blu appaiono così perché OmegaCam filtra la luce emessa in colori distinti.
Da Eso il dettaglio dei resti di una massiccia esplosione stellare
What’s left over after a massive star reaches the end of its life I hear you ask? Take a look for yourself. This Picture of the Week shows a small but very intricate portion of the Vela supernova remnant, the violent and yet beautiful aftermath of an explosive stellar death. This dramatic scene played out around 11 000 years ago when a massive star in the constellation Vela went supernova. During this violent event, the star would have shined so brightly that it could be seen during the day. The detailed and stunning view of both the gaseous filaments in the remnant and the bright blue stars in the foreground were captured using the 286-million-pixel OmegaCAM at the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. OmegaCAM can take images through several filters that each let the telescope observe the light emitted in a distinct colour. To capture this image, four filters have been used, represented here by a combination of magenta, blue, green and red.