On Monday, September 4, Pavel Suchan from the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Czech Astronomical Society informed about it – under its auspices, the photo competition is taking place and its jury has selected the winning image.
“Nine thousand years BC is not so long ago. In the Middle East, Neolithic cultures are formed, Jericho is founded, the glaciers melt, and in Central Europe we still have the Middle Stone Age. Large mammals are declining and humanity is moving north. There are still very few people in the whole world, probably less than five million. And just at this time, a massive explosion occurs in the northwestern part of the constellation Plachet, which, of course, no one had named it that way at the time,” said Marcel Bělík from the Observatory in Úpica on behalf of the ČAM jury.
One of the closest known supernova remnants
Here, the massive star ended its active life in a huge supernova explosion. This event then took place at a distance of only 815 light years. This makes it one of the closest known supernova remnants.
The remnants of the torn nebula surround a rapidly rotating neutron star, the so-called pulsar – the remnant of the original star.
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The pulsar in question rotates around its axis 11 times per second and its diameter is estimated to be 20 kilometers. As data from the US Chandra X-ray Observatory show, an ever-glowing nebula of expanding gaseous remnants is forming there, heading further into the surroundings.
The region of the Expanding Nebula spans at least 230 light-years in diameter, which is more than 100 areas of the full moon when projected onto the sky.
Rubber, not rubber supernova
In addition, Korbel’s image captures the remains of another, much older supernova explosion – from around one million years back in time. It is named after the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, who published its discovery in 1955. So it is “Gum”, not “gum”, experts point out.
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It is so large that not only was it not fully captured in the picture, but it is even very difficult to observe due to its proximity. It lies at the interface of the constellations Sails and the Stern and occupies an area of more than 40 degrees in the sky. We are located about 450 light-years from the leading and 1500 light-years from the trailing edge of this hydrogen nebula.
Much remains unknown about the Gum Nebula, including the timing and even the sheer number of supernova explosions that gave rise to it, astronomers conclude.
The winning images of the ČAM competition from the past months can be found at website Czech Astronomical Society.
A bluish squid-shaped nebula. A Czech photographer took a picture from the edge of the Milky Way
2023-09-04 14:01:58
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