New image reveals stunning ghostly remains of gigantic star

A caller representation has revealed the stunning ghostly remains of a gigantic star.

The wispy pinkish structure, suitably tinged with orangish fixed the picture's merchandise connected Halloween, is each that is near of a monolithic prima which died successful a almighty detonation astir 11,000 years ago.

Named Vela, the remnants seen successful the representation unsocial are capable to acceptable 9 full moons - and the full unreality is adjacent larger than that.

It is 1 of the closest supernova remains to Earth, astatine 800 airy years away. To compare, the iconic Pillars of Creation recaptured successful glorious item earlier this month are 6,500 airy years away.

The representation of Vela was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope astatine the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Paranal observatory tract successful Chile, wherever parts of the James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace were filmed.

The telescope's camera boasts 268 cardinal pixels and tin instrumentality images done respective filters to fto done airy of antithetic colours.

Its representation of Vela is made up of 554 cardinal pixels, making it a beardown contender for your adjacent desktop wallpaper.

What's the backstory of Vela?

When it is clip for the biggest stars to die, they often spell retired successful a immense blast known arsenic a supernova.

The explosions are truthful ample that they nonstop shockwaves done the surrounding gas, compressing it and creating intricate thread-like structures, arsenic seen successful the representation of Vela.

These structures are heated up by the sheer magnitude of vigor released, which is what makes them truthful shiny.

What remains of the prima is an ultra-dense shot of protons and electrons, forced unneurotic into a neutron star.

The Vela remnant's neutron prima happens to beryllium what is known arsenic a pulsar, which spins connected its ain axis astatine a whopping velocity of much than 10 times per second.