Zooming in on the Pencil Nebula
September 14, 2012
This video starts with a wide field view of the spectacular southern part of the Milky Way. We close in gradually on a large bubble-shaped region of glowing gas in the constellation of Vela (The Sails). This is the Vela supernova remnant, gas clouds that were ejected from a dying star in a huge explosion about 11 000 years ago. The final detailed view comes from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Nick Risinger
Topics:
Space, European Southern Observatory, Astronomy, MPG/ESO telescope, Vela constellation, Vela Supernova Remnant, Supernova remnant, NGC, Large Magellanic Cloud, Milky Way, Local Group, La Silla Observatory
