2024-03-15 06:53:16
A special camera captured the remains of a supernova in incredibly detailed images. The recording is of great importance for research.
The Vela supernova, a stellar explosion in the southern constellation of Vela, occurred around 11,000 years ago at a distance of more than 800 light-years. Since then, only remnants of the former star remain – but they still make a fascinating picture. Dust and filaments of gas extend over an area of an incredible 100 light years.
As “space.com” reports, these supernova remnants have now been captured by a special camera – the Dark Energy Camera (Decam). It is mounted on the telescope of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. It was developed to observe distant galaxies and measure the power of dark energy. However, since this research was completed, it has been used in more versatile ways.
What is Dark Matter?
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter postulated in astrophysics to describe phenomena that are observed with gravity but cannot be explained by visible matter. Researchers have various ideas about what dark matter might be made of, but no direct evidence has been found yet.
Recording is of great astronomical importance
Decam has now also taken the image of the Vela remains – in a resolution of 1.3 gigapixels (1.3 billion pixels). For comparison: Common smartphones usually have a 12 megapixel camera, which corresponds to 12 million pixels. The image captured is therefore incredibly detailed and shows not only the supernova remnant but also other interesting objects.
Although the recording itself is interesting, there is much more to it. The image is also of great astronomical importance. It gives researchers a glimpse into the late stages of the evolution of an exploded supernova and shows how the material ejected from the supernova gradually disperses into interstellar space. The shock wave from the ancient stellar explosion that formed the Vela supernova remnant is still propagating through space, according to space.com.