These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the echo appears to expand. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed this light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.
Meanwhile, far from Earth...
The space between stars is full of gas and dust that is normally dark & invisible to us. But a flash of light from a 350-year-old supernova has lit up the interstellar medium -- revealing it in all its strange, swirling glory. 🧪🔭
webbtelescope.org/contents/new...
1 year ago
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