NASA Hubble Telescope Shows What’s Left After Stars Die

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration posted photos showing the aftermath of a star’s death taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. 

The recent Hubble Twitter post shows four samples: the Veil Nebula, the Supernova Remnant DEM L, the Crab Nebula, and the Cygnus supernova.

Check the images below to see for yourself. Believe it or not, those are not digital wallpapers but true samples of our magnificent universe!

More details about the latest Hubble images

What do all these Hubble images have in common?

They show the aftermath of stars that died in a bright, powerful explosion known as a supernova.

In a supernova, a star’s contents fling out into space at speeds of up to 25,000 miles (15,000 to 40,000 km) per second! pic.twitter.com/KC5BHNeSZa

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) February 27, 2023

Refer to the Twitter post above to follow along with the descriptions of each image. The first image at the top left corner is the Veil Nebula.

It is in the sky of Cygnus, 2,100 light-years away from Earth. For reference, a light-year is 186,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers!

The Veil Nebula looks like a tube of glowing air. Next, the Supernova Remnant DEM L is at the top right corner.

They resemble fragile sheets and filaments in the Milky Way Galaxy’s Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy.

The third image at the bottom left is the Crab Nebula. It came from a supernova explosion that occurred in 1054 AD.

Lastly, the last image is the Cygnus supernova explosion wave found in the northern constellation of Cygnus.

NASA’s tweet describes them as the remnants of dying stars. These heavenly bodies eventually burn out as they exhaust their nuclear fuel, made of hydrogen, helium, and other elements.

Ironically, stars become larger as they expend more energy, turning into red giants. Once it runs out of fuel, the star collapses, and its outer layers explode as a “supernova.”

Consequently, the Hubble images show supernovas, what remains after stars die. Light from these explosions traveled thousands of light years to reach our Space Telescope.  

That allows Hubble to take these images. However, these heavenly bodies may have been long gone by the time we could capture photos of them.

Fortunately, NASA has been working hard to provide more insights regarding outer space. 

Aside from the Hubble star pictures, the organization has been learning more about other planets.

For example, the NASA Mars Lander gathered valuable data about the red planet, showing more details about planets besides Earth.