press release
October 31, 2022
A spooky spider web, magical dragons or dark ghost trails? What do you see in this image of the Vela supernova remnant? Featuring the ghostly remains of a gigantic star, this magnificent spectacle of colour was captured here in incredible detail using the VLT survey telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal site in Chile.
The delicate structure of pink and orange clouds is all that remains of a massive star that ended its life in a massive explosion about 11,000 years ago. When the most massive stars reach the end of their lives, they often go out with a bang, called a supernova. These explosions cause shock waves that travel through the surrounding gas, compressing it and forming delicate threadlike structures. The energy released heats the filaments of gas and makes them glow, as seen in this image.
In this 554-megapixel image, we see an extremely detailed glimpse of the Vela, supernova remnantnamed after the southern constellation Vela (The ship’s sails). Nine full moons fit this image, and the entire cloud is even larger. At just 800 light-years from Earth, it’s dramatic. Supernova remnant one of the closest we know.
When it exploded, the outermost layers of the previous star were ejected into the surrounding gas, creating the spectacular filaments we see here. What remains of the star is an ultra-dense sphere in which protons and electrons are compressed into neutrons – a Neutron star. The Vela remnant neutron star, located just outside this image at upper left, is a pulsarwhich rotates on its own axis at an incredible speed of more than 10 times per second.
This image is a mosaic of observations made with the wide-angle camera OmegaCAM on VLT Survey Telescope (VST) on Paranal Observatory taken by ESO in Chile. The 268-megapixel camera can capture images through various filters that let light of different colours pass through. Four different filters were used in this image of the Vela remnant, here a combination of magenta, blue, green and red.
The VST belongs to the National Institute of Astrophysics of Italy (INAF) and, with its 2.6-meter mirror, is one of the largest telescopes measuring the night sky in visible light. This image is an example of such a survey: the Hα VST photometric survey of the southern galactic plane and bulge (VPHAS+). For more than seven years, this study has mapped a significant portion of our home galaxy and allowed astronomers to better understand how stars form, evolve and eventually die.
More information
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists from around the world to unlock the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories that astronomers use to answer exciting questions and inspire fascination with astronomy, and we promote international collaboration in astronomy. Founded in 1962 as an intergovernmental organisation, ESO is led by 16 Member States (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the Host Country Chile and Australia as strategic partners. ESO Headquarters and its Visitor Centre and Planetarium, ESO Supernova, are located near Munich in Germany, while the Atacama Desert in Chile, a wonderland offering unique conditions for observing the skies, is home to our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At the Paranal site, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its associated Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as survey telescopes such as VUE. Also at Paranal, ESO will operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. In collaboration with international partners, ESO operates APEX and ALMA, two millimetre and submillimetre observing facilities on Chajnantor. On Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s largest eye in the sky”: ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile, we support our activities in the country and collaborate with Chilean partners and society.
The translations of ESO press releases into English are a service of the ESO Science Outreach Network (ESON), an international astronomy outreach network in which scientists and science communicators from all ESO Member Countries (and some other countries) are represented. It is the German node of the network. House of Astronomy in Heidelberg.
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Contact details
Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos
ESO Media Manager
Garching near Munich, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6176
E-mail: press@eso.org
Markus Nielbock (press contact Germany)
ESO Science Outreach Network and House of Astronomy
Heidelberg, Germany
Tel: +49 6221 528-134
E-mail: eson-germany@eso.org
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This is a translation of ESO press release eso2214.