A star exploded and its remains now vibrantly linger in space
By Tara De Boer
Click here for updates on this story
TORONTO (CTV Network) — Vivid documentation of an 11,000-year-old star “ghost” was captured via telescope this Halloween.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) was able to take an image of the vibrant aftermath of a massive Vela Supernova star after it exploded, even though the star died thousands of years ago.
“When we were processing this image, its ethereal and wispy appearance immediately made us think this would be a perfect image to release on Halloween,” Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos, astronomer and media officer at ESO, told CTVNews.ca in an email. “We’re literally seeing the leftovers of a star that died with a bang about 11,000 years ago – it doesn’t get any more ghostly than that.”
Captured in a detailed 554-million-pixel image, the star remnant is known to be the closest one to Earth at just 800 light-years away.
The vivid orange and pink clouds pictured in the image are a result of the outermost layers of the star being ejected into the surrounding gas as it explodes.
During their lives, stars fuse simple elements like hydrogen and helium into heavier ones like carbon or oxygen, elements which are then expelled into the interstellar medium when the star dies, according to Munoz-Mateos.
“If this happens via a supernova explosion, like the one that created the structures we see in this image, then even heavier elements are produced during the explosion itself. Later on, new stars and planets might form out of that enriched gas, and they will incorporate all those heavy elements.”
Munoz-Mateos says that when astronomers say humans are “star stuff,” they are referring to the fact that the complex atoms in our bodies like carbon, iron or calcium were forged long ago in stars that no longer exist.
“This is in my opinion one of the most profound results astronomy has ever produced, and it’s what I think about when I look at this image.”
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
Sonja Puzic
