The Veil Nebula | Filaments of The Cygnus Loop: Image 4 | WIYN Telescope

The Veil Nebula | Filaments of The Cygnus Loop: Image 4 | WIYN Telescope

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona. It shows NGC 6992—faint filaments that are part of a large supernova remnant (SNR) called the Cygnus Loop. These are the remains of a star that exploded 5000 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 distance to it is estimated at about 1,500 light years.

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.

The image was generated with observations in the Oxygen [OIII] (blue), Sulphur [S II] (green) and Hydrogen-Alpha (orange) filters. In this image, North is right, East is up.

The WIYN Consortium, led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Indiana University, are operational responsible for the historic 0.9-meter (36-inch) WIYN Telescope at the National Science Foundation's Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO).

Image Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and WIYN/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Release Date: June 30, 2020

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