Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  52 Cyg  ·  IC 1340  ·  LBN 191  ·  LDN 868  ·  NGC 6960  ·  NGC 6974  ·  NGC 6979  ·  NGC 6992  ·  NGC 6995  ·  PGC 140941  ·  PGC 1995470  ·  PGC 3096599  ·  PGC 90374  ·  Sh2-103  ·  The star 52 Cyg  ·  Veil Nebula
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Veil Nebula - 2 panel mosaic, Almos Balasi
Powered byPixInsight

Veil Nebula - 2 panel mosaic

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Veil Nebula - 2 panel mosaic, Almos Balasi
Powered byPixInsight

Veil Nebula - 2 panel mosaic

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus.It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. At the time of explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in daytime. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, and 36 times the area, of the full Moon). While previous distance estimates have ranged from 1200 to 5800 light-years, a recent determination of 2400 light-years is based on direct astrometric measurements.(The distance estimates affect also the estimates of size and age.)

Comments