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.

2021 April 14
A picture of the Pencil Nebula Supernova Shock Wave 
For more details, please read
the explanation.

The Pencil Nebula Supernova Shock Wave
Image Credit & Copyright: Greg Turgeon & Utkarsh Mishra

Explanation: This supernova shock wave plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometres per hour. Near the middle and moving up in this sharply detailed colour composite, thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a cosmic sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge-on. Catalogued as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula. The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometres per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material. In the featured narrow-band, wide field image, red and blue colours track, primarily, the characteristic glows of ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: The Galaxy, the Jet, and the Black Hole


< | Archive | Submissions | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS | Education | About APOD | Discuss | >

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.