The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lately shared a picture of stunning supernova remains in the Large Magellanic Cloud, more than 25 light-years of side to side. The Picture has gained 23,000 likes and 100 comments and has been shared by NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory’s official Instagram account.
In the caption for the image, we read, “N63A is one of the most prominent #supernova remains in the Large Magellanic Cloud — more than 25 light-years from side to side. Violent shock waves triggered by the supernova burst have caused portions of this remains to reach temperatures that surpass 10 million degrees Celsius. The famous knot of gas and dust in the upper right is called “the Firefox.”🔥 Check it out
For the uninitiated, NASA explains that a supernova remnant (SNR) remains a supernova explosion. For understanding our galaxy, SNRs are extremely important. They heat the interstellar medium, distribute heavy elements throughout the universe, and accelerate cosmic rays.
It further explains that Supernova remnants significantly impact the ecology of the Milky Way. If it wasn’t for SNRs, we might not even have our Earth, plants, animals, or people. Also, supernova remnants release much energy to the ISM (1028 megatons per supernova). And as the shockwave moves outward, it sweeps across a large volume of the ISM.
NASA Hubble Space Telescope is a large telescope in space that was commissioned back in 1990. Hubble is as long as a giant cargo carriage travels around Earth at about 5 miles per second. Hubble has seen stars being born and die. It has also seen galaxies trillions of miles away, and comet pieces crash into the gases above Jupiter.