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This Picture of the Week revisits the Veil Nebula, a\u00a0popular subject\u00a0for Hubble images! This object was featured in a\u00a0previous Hubble photo release, but now new processing techniques have been applied, bringing out fine details of the nebula\u2019s delicate threads and filaments of ionised gas.<\/p>\n
To create this colourful image, observations taken by Hubble’s\u00a0Wide Field Camera 3\u00a0instrument through 5 different filters were used. The new post-processing methods have further enhanced details of emissions from doubly ionised oxygen (seen here in blues), ionised hydrogen and ionised nitrogen (seen here in reds).<\/p>\n
The Veil Nebula lies around 2100 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan), making it a relatively close neighbour in astronomical terms. Only a small portion of the nebula was captured in this image.<\/p>\n
The Veil Nebula is the visible portion of the nearby Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant formed roughly 10 000 years ago by the death of a massive star. The Veil Nebula\u2019s progenitor star \u2014 which was 20 times the mass of the Sun \u2014 lived fast and died young, ending its life in a cataclysmic release of energy. Despite this stellar violence, the shockwaves and debris from the supernova sculpted the Veil Nebula\u2019s delicate tracery of ionised gas \u2014 creating a scene of surprising astronomical beauty.<\/p>\n