Hubble’s New Picture of The Cygnus Loop Seems to be Too Good to Be Actual

In case you’re a Star Trek fan, chances are you’ll suppose the above picture portrays the “Nexus” from the film Star Trek: Generations. Within the movie, the Nexus was a ribbon-like extra-dimensional realm that exists outdoors of regular space-time.

However that is really an actual picture from the venerable Hubble House Telescope, of the Cygnus Loop.

This beautiful image from house exhibits only a small portion of a blast wave left over from a supernova that occurred, from our vantage level, within the northern constellation Cygnus the Swan.  

The unique supernova explosion blasted aside a dying star about 2,600 light-years away.

This star was roughly 20 occasions extra huge than our Solar, and the blast possible occurred between 10,000 to 20,000 years in the past. Since then, the remnant has expanded 60 light-years from its heart.

(ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Blair.)

The shockwave marks the outer fringe of the supernova remnant and continues to increase at unimaginable speeds, round 350 kilometers per second. The interplay of the ejected materials and the low-density interstellar materials swept up by the shockwave kinds the distinctive veil-like construction seen on this picture.

In Star Trek lore, in the event you have been contained in the Nexus, you existed in an ideal, idealized world. Gazing an unimaginable picture like this makes you contemplate that one thing like which may simply be potential.

Here is one other, earlier Hubble picture of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant from 1991, and beneath that’s a picture of the well-known Veil Nebula, which is contained in the bigger Cygnus supernova remnant.

This 1991 Hubble picture exhibits a small part of the Cygnus Loop. (NASA/Hubble)

Veil Nebula. (ESA/Hubble House Telescope)

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