Breathtaking New 544MP Image of a Supernova Remnant Revealed

This image shows a spectacular view of the orange and pink clouds that make up what remains after the explosive death of a massive star — the Vela supernova remnant. This detailed image consists of 554 million pixels, and is a combined mosaic image of observations taken with the 268-million-pixel OmegaCAM camera at the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory.  OmegaCAM can take images through several filters that each let the telescope see the light emitted in a distinct colour. To capture this image, four filters have been used, represented here by a combination of magenta, blue, green and red. The result is an extremely detailed and stunning view of both the gaseous filaments in the remnant and the foreground bright blue stars that add sparkle to the image.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released a new image of the cosmos, which is not exactly uncommon. However, the new image of the Vela supernova remnant is special. It was captured with one of the largest telescopes in the world and features an incredible level of detail. The ESO has made the stunning image available in various resolutions, including a 544-megapixel original file.

Until about 11,000 years ago, there was no Vela supernova remnant. This structure is the product of a type II supernova, which marked the end of a massive star. That star is now an ultra-dense neutron star — technically a pulsar as it’s rotating more than 11 times per second. It’s the brightest pulsar (in radio frequencies) in the sky, and has one of the fastest rotations known. The image from the ESO doesn’t focus on the pulsar itself but rather on the massive cloud of energized gas that makes up the supernova remnant.

The Vela supernova remnant is only 800 light years away, which allows the VLT to get a good look at the structure. When the progenitor star ran out of nuclear fuel, the resulting collapse launched the outer layers away with a massive explosion. The shock wave compresses gas into wispy filaments. The energy from the supernova heats the gas, making it glow brightly in the image.

The image comes to us by way of the ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope, which is a 2.6-meter telescope in the arid Atacama Desert in Chile. It relies on a single focal plane instrument known as the OmegaCAM, which has a resolution of 268 megapixels. It can capture images with a variety of color filters. In the case of the Vela supernova remnant, four were used: red, blue, green, and magenta.

This image shows the process of going from the raw data captured by a telescope to a stunning astronomical image like the one featured here, showing the Vela supernova remnant as seen with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST).

You might wonder how you get from a 268-megapixel sensor to a 544-megapixel processed image. The answer is that what you see above is a mosaic composed of multiple frames. The ESO provided a neat graphic that explains the process. The team has to merge frames, balance the background, assign colors to each filter, and finally produce the final full-color version.

The ESO has downloads of the image in various wallpaper resolutions, but if you’ve got a lot of pixels to cover or just want to explore the Vela supernova remnant in greater detail, there are publication-ready JPEGs, as well as uncompressed TIFF files. The original 544-megapixel version clocks in at 1.1GB.

Now read:

• Scientists Think They Know What Caused Betelgeuse’s ‘Great Dimming’
• Hubble Spots Supernova Blast Wave 2,400 Light Years Away
• Astronomers Find Evidence of Supernova Just 600 Light-Years from Earth