The Veil Nebula | Filaments of The Cygnus Loop: Image 6 | Burrell Schmidt Telescope

The Veil Nebula | Filaments of The Cygnus Loop: Image 6 | Burrell Schmidt Telescope

The Veil Nebula, also known as the Cygnus Loop, is an enormous region of diffuse gas emission, covering several degrees of the sky at about 1,500 light years away. Although this image is over a degree across (more than 40 light-years), using the full wide-field capability of the Burrell Schmidt Telescope, it still shows only the western segment (NGC 6960) of the entire object (over 100 light-years in width). These are the remains of a star that exploded 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. The original supernova would have been bright enough to be seen clearly from Earth with the naked eye. The star—that was 20 times the mass of the Sun—lived fast and died young, ending its life in a cataclysmic release of energy. The bright star near the center of the image, known as 52 Cygnus, is not associated with the supernova. 

The nebula consists mostly of interstellar matter swept up by the material flung off by the exploding star, and it still shines because of excitation due to the collision between this expanding shock wave and the interstellar medium. The Veil Nebula also emits X-rays, although they are weaker than those from younger supernova remnants such as Cassiopeia A, since the shock loses energy as it plows through its surroundings. 

Supernova explosions are perhaps the most spectacular events in our galaxy, occurring when a star throws off its outer layers at speeds of ten to twenty thousand kilometers per second, leaving behind sometimes nothing, sometimes a shriveled remnant neutron star, or sometimes a black hole. 

The Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103), located in the constellation Cygnus, is an emission nebula measuring nearly 3° across. Arcs of the loop, known collectively as the Veil Nebula or Cirrus Nebula, emit in the visible electromagnetic range. Radio, infrared, and X-ray images reveal the complete loop. The Cygnus Loop extends over three times the size of the full moon in the night sky, and is tucked next to one of the “swan’s wings” in the constellation of Cygnus.

This image was made by combining a number of exposures taken by the Burrell Schmidt Telescope of the Warner and Swasey Observatory of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), situated on Kitt Peak in southern Arizona.

Learn more the Burrell Schmidt Telescope here:

https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/kitt-peak-national-observatory/burrell-schmidt-telescope/

Image Credit: N.A.Sharp, REU Program / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA

Release Date: June 30, 2020

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