The Pencil Nebula a celestial broom

Pencil Nebula Shown is a new image of the La Silla Observatory in Chile. curious cloud of glowing This gas is hand of a giant ring of residues, Remains of a supernova explosion That Took up there are about 11 000 years. Detailed view this was conducted by the WFI (Wide Field Imager) on the telescope MPG / ESO 2.2-meter.

DESPITE the tranquility and beauty of seemingly immutable a starry night, the universe is far from smooth sailing. Stars are born and die along an endless cycle, and sometimes the death of a star can create a landscape of incredible beauty, while icts material is propelled into space and form strange structures in the sky.

This new image taken with the camera WFI (Wide Field Imager) on the telescope MPG / ESO 2.2-meter at the La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the pencil Nebula ESO [1] on background rich stars. This strange cloud shape, also known as NGC 2734, is a small portion of the Remains of a supernova [2] in the southern constellation of Sails. Were these bright filaments created by the violent death of a star That Took up there 11,000   years? The brightest hand looks like a pencil, hence icts name, and the goal structure as a whole is more like a traditional broom.

The rest of the Vela supernova envelope is Expanding gas created by the explosion of the supernova. INITIALLY, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometers per hour, Extending object into space, It Has penetrated the interstellar gas Slowed Down That HAS considerably and created folds of nebulosity with strange shapes. Nebula The Pencil is the brightest portion of this huge envelope.

This new image shows broad and fine filamentous structures, smaller gas concentrations and Areas of bright diffuse gas. Luminous appearance of the nebula is dense regions of gas That Have Been hit by the shock wave from the supernova. While the shock wave travels in space, it hits the interstellar matter. INITIALLY, the gas heated to millions has-beens of degrees, aim it is cooled and thereafter continued to emit the low light captured this image.

Looking at the different colors of the nebula, the astronomers were bled to map the gas temperature. Some regions are still so hot queue le issuance is dominated by ionized oxygen Atoms that glow blue in the image. Colder other emit red light, due to the Emission of hydrogen.

The Pencil Nebula measure about 0.75 light-year long and moves through the interstellar medium at about 650 000 km / h. Remarkably, even at this distance of about 800 light-years from Earth, this means clustering That It will change the relative position Significantly to the stars in the background falling on the duration of a human life. THUS, Effective even 11.000 years, the explosion of the supernova continued to change the face of the night sky.

Note:

[1] The Pencil Nebula, also known as NGC 2736 and sometimes the Called the radius of Herschel, British astronomer was discovered by John Herschel late 1835 When He was in South Africa. He Described it as "an extraordinarily long and narrow beam of light exceedingly low.”

[2] A supernova is a stellar explosion resulting and violent from the death of a very massive star or a white dwarf in a close binary star systems. Structure the resulting and the explosion is called from the rest of the supernova. Material ejected These Extending at supersonic speeds in the surrounding interstellar medium. Supernovae are the primary source of heavy chemical elements in the interstellar medium, which will then lead to the chemical enrichment of new generations of stars and planets.

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LL'année 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ESO is the foremost organization Intergovernmental astronomy in Europe and the MOST productive astronomical observatory in the world. It is supported by 15 countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. ESO carries out ambitious program year focused on the design, construction and operation of ground equipment for Powerful Enabling astronomy-based astronomers to make significant scientific discoveries. ESO plays a leading role aussi Promoting and organizing cooperation in astronomical research in. Operates three single ESO observing sites, world-class in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO Operates the "Very Large Telescope", the astronomical observatory in the visibility of the world 's most advanced telescopes and two dedicated to wide surveys. VISTA operating in the infrared. It is The Largest telescope for large surveys. And the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) The Largest telescope is designed to survey the skies exclusively in visible light. ESO is the European partner in ALMA, a revolutionary astronomical telescope. ALMA is The Largest astronomical project in progress. ESO is currently carrying out a program European giant telescope (E-ELT for European Extremely Large Telescope) Class of 39 meters That Observed in the visible and near infrared. The E-ELT will be "the biggest eyes in the world toward the sky."