Supernovae don’t occur all the time in the Universe. But when they do, they leave behind a spectacular light show that can outshine an entire galaxy and conquer us forever.
An O-type star without a name from the Large Magellanic Cloud exploded in a type II supernova about 165,000 years ago, and the Hubble Space Telescope spotted the remaining object after the blast. The celestial and shredded object goes by the designation DEM L 190, and you are free to feast your eyes on it thanks to one of Hubble’s recent ‘Picture of the Week:’
1/ 🎇 Shreds of the luridly coloured supernova remnant DEM L 190 seem to billow across the screen in this Hubble Picture of the Week. Take a moment to enjoy the view! Full story: https://t.co/wDiz5NTsGW and details 👇 pic.twitter.com/mA9dzRFD3t
— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) November 28, 2022
According to Phys.org, what remained after the supernova was actually a pulsar surrounded by a glowing cloud of gas. By definition, pulsars are also neutron stars, only that they possess a stronger magnetic field.
Scientists in charge of the Hubble telescope also inform us that the supernova remnant in question is the brightest one in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
If you’ve been somehow planning to go anywhere near DEM L 190, you should cancel such a trip as soon as possible. One of the reasons is that the cosmic object is located approximately 160,000 light-years away from Earth, meaning that you would literally die of old age in the spacecraft on the way there.
Orbiting the Milky Way
We could say that, technically speaking, the DEM L 190 supernova remnant is orbiting our Milky Way galaxy. That’s because the pulsar is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a dwarf galaxy revolving around our own galaxy. Also known as Nubecula Major, the satellite galaxy is located about 158,200 light-years away from Earth. It also has a radius of “only” 7,000 light-years. The radius of our Milky Way galaxy, on the other hand, measures a lot more: 52,850 light-years.
Supernovae explosions also release cosmic rays besides X-rays and huge amounts of radio waves.
