Its popular nickname is the Spaghetti Nebula.
Officially cataloged as
Simeis 147
and Sharpless 2-240, it is easy to get lost
following the looping and twisting filaments of this intricate
supernova remnant.
Seen toward the boundary of the
constellations of the Bull
(
Taurus)
and the Charioteer
(
Auriga),
the impressive gas structure covers nearly 3
degrees on the sky,
equivalent to 6
full moons.
That's about 150
light-years
at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years.
The
supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from this
powerful stellar explosion first reached the
Earth when woolly mammoths roamed free.
Besides the expanding remnant, this
cosmic catastrophe left behind a
pulsar,
a fast-spinning
neutron star that is the remnant of the original star's core.
The
featured image was captured last month from
Forca Canapine,
Italy.