The Witch's Broom Sets the Veil on Fire (NGC 6960 in SHO) (Vivian Budnik)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg) · Contains: 52 Cyg · HD198330 · HD198482 · HD335010 · HD335013 · HD335016 · HD335017 · HD335018 · HD335019 · HD335022 · HD335024 · HD335025 · HD335028 · HD335030 · HD335031 · HD335032 · HD335035 · HD335036 · HD335037 · HD335042 · HD335043 · HD335118 · HD335119 · HD335123 · HD335124 · HD335125 · HD335126 · HD335127 · HD335130 · HD335132 · And 15 more.

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The Witch's Broom Sets the Veil on Fire (NGC 6960 in SHO)

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The Witch's Broom Sets the Veil on Fire (NGC 6960 in SHO)

The witch’s broom is part of the Veil, a supernova remnant. According to what I have read, a supernova is a humongous bright explosion of a massive star, at least 10 times the size of our sun. This happens because these stars originally have a huge amount of hot nuclear energy at their core. Normally, the outward pressure generated by the hot core is counterbalanced by the inward gravitational pressure. However, as the star ages, the nuclear center begins to cool down, so that the inward gravitational pressure becomes comparatively so large, that the star collapses. The collapse happens so quickly (sometimes leaving a black hole), that powerful shock waves make the outer parts of the star to explode. A supernova remnant is what is left from the shock waves and it is composed of ionized gases and dust. If the gases and dust (the interstellar medium) reach a certain critical size, they can collapse, forming new stars…..but that is a story for a another day…

The Veil nebula, part of which is shown in the image, is a supernova remnant. The elongated region at the center (NGC6960) is called the Witch's Broom and to me, allegorically, it looks as if the broom is on fire, and spreading the fire to the Veil (just a rich imagination)!

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	G37EV0RRZVQDIS1TN2P8WLCWH7K7PUDV
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	20h46m46s.56
RA (top/left)	20h42m16s.63
RA (top/right)	20h48m35s.88
RA (bottom/right)	20h51m13s.84
RA (bottom/left)	20h44m58s.49

Dec (center)	+30°49′27″.0
Dec (top/left)	+31°02′29″.4
Dec (top/right)	+31°43′44″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+30°35′49″.6
Dec (bottom/left)	+29°54′49″.10

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The Witch's Broom Sets the Veil on Fire (NGC 6960 in SHO)

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The Witch's Broom Sets the Veil on Fire (NGC 6960 in SHO)

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