What are we made of? Stars powder some says…
A circular-shaped nebula with a complex structure. On the circle’s exterior, particularly on the left side of the image, are curtains of material glowing orange like fire. Interior to this outer shell is a ring of mottled filaments in bright pink, studded with clumps and knots. A greenish loop extends from the upper right of the ring into the central cavity. Translucent wisps of blue, green, and red appear throughout the image.
Supernovae like the one that formed Cassiopeia A (Cas A), as shown here, are crucial for life as we know it. They spread elements like the calcium we find in our bones and the iron in our blood across interstellar space, seeding new generations of stars and planets.
This is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue), T. Temim (Princeton), I. De Looze (Ghent University). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI).
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