APOD: The Ghostly Veil Nebula (2019 Oct 31)

[APOD Robot]

The Ghostly Veil Nebula

Explanation: A ghostly visage on a cosmic scale, these remains of shocked, glowing gas haunt planet Earth's sky toward the constellation of Cygnus and form the Veil Nebula. The nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, an expanding cloud born of the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the original supernova explosion likely reached Earth over 5,000 years ago. Also known as the Cygnus Loop, the Veil Nebula now spans nearly 3 degrees or about 6 times the diameter of the full Moon. That translates to over 70 light-years at its estimated distance of 1,500 light-years. In fact, the Veil is so large its brighter parts are recognized as separate nebulae, including The Witch's Broom (NGC 6960) below and right of center. At the top left you can find the Spectre of IC 1340. Happy Halloween!

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[Ann]

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Horrible ghostly grin in the Veil Nebula. Photo: Bob Franke.

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The evil grinning man on Earth.
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The eastern(?) part of the Veil Nebula, IC 1340, is the only part of the sky that looks truly evil to me. Like something straight out of a horror movie.

Look out, it's coming from the sky to take you!

Ann

[golfgod65]

If the nebula is 1,500 light years away, how could the light from the supernova get here 5,000 years ago?

[GeoX]

If the nebula is 1,500 light years away, how could the light from the supernova get here 5,000 years ago?

The light from the supernova reached us 5,000 years in the past. It didn’t take 5,000 years to get here.

[neufer]

If the nebula is 1,500 light years away, how could the light from the supernova get here 5,000 years ago?

The observed APOD nebula appears to be a ~5,000 year old remnant
of a supernova that would have been observed here ~5,000 years ago
after the photons, neutrinos & gravitons spent 1,500 years to get here.

[Guest]

If the nebula is 1,500 light years away, how could the light from the supernova get here 5,000 years ago?

The light from the supernova reached us 5,000 years in the past. Thus that would make the explosion 6500 years old. We are seeing it now as it was 1,500 years in our past or 5,000 years after the original star went supernova.

[orin stepanek]

Colorful; very pretty!

[starobin]

Call me crazy, but when I look at this image through anaglyph glasses it looks like a screaming banshee's skull in 3-D.
Check it out, but only if you dare!

[Dark Matters]

So was anything left behind where the star used to be? A neutron star or black hole? Would they be visible?

[Cousin Ricky]

This is the most detailed image of the entire Veil Nebula I've ever seen.

[neufer]

---

So was anything left behind where the star used to be?
A neutron star or black hole? Would they be visible?

A black hole would be hard to observe...as would many neutron stars:

<<The Veil Nebula constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant.

The Cygnus Loop source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun, which exploded around 8,000 years ago.>>

<<Sanduleak -69 202 (Sk -69 202, also known as GSC 09162-00821) was a magnitude 12 blue supergiant star [~20 times more massive than the Sun], located on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is notable as the progenitor of supernova 1987A.>>

<<SN 1987A appears to be a core-collapse supernova, which should result in a neutron star given the size of the original star. The neutrino data indicate that a compact object did form at the star's core. However, since the supernova first became visible, astronomers have been searching for the collapsed core but have not detected it. The Hubble Space Telescope has taken images of the supernova regularly since August 1990, but, so far, the images have shown no evidence of a neutron star. A number of possibilities for the 'missing' neutron star are being considered. The first is that the neutron star is enshrouded in dense dust clouds so that it cannot be seen. Another is that a pulsar was formed, but with either an unusually large or small magnetic field. It is also possible that large amounts of material fell back on the neutron star, so that it further collapsed into a black hole. Neutron stars and black holes often give off light as material falls onto them. If there is a compact object in the supernova remnant, but no material to fall onto it, it would be very dim and could therefore avoid detection. Other scenarios have also been considered, such as whether the collapsed core became a quark star.>>

• "Yesterday, upon the stair,
  I met a man who wasn't there!
  He wasn't there again today,
  Oh how I wish he'd go away!"

[Ann]

• "Yesterday, upon the stair,
  I met a man who wasn't there!
  He wasn't there again today,
  Oh how I wish he'd go away!"

It must be Geminga:

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Geminga.

Wikipedia wrote:

Geminga /ɡəˈmɪŋɡə/ is a neutron star approximately 250 parsecs[1] (around 800 light years) from the Sun in the constellation Gemini. Its name, attributed by its discoverer Giovanni Bignami, is both a contraction of Gemini gamma-ray source, and a transcription of the words gh'è minga (pronounced [ɡɛ ˈmĩːɡa]), meaning "it's not there" in the Milanese dialect of Lombard.

Ann