Hubble captures tangled remnants of a Supernova

It is likely the result of a Type Ia supernova explosion.

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has recently captured a dark, tangled web an object named SNR 0454-67.2.

SNR 0454-67.2 is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that lies close to the Milky Way.

The remnant is likely the result of a Type Ia supernova explosion; this category of supernovae is formed from the death of a white dwarf star that grows by siphoning material from a stellar companion until it reaches a critical mass and then explodes.

The object SNR 0454-67.2 framed in an exceptionally violent fashion — it is a supernova remnant, made after a massive star finished its life in a cataclysmic explosion and threw its constituent material out into encompassing space.

This created the messy formation that Hubble captured with threads of red snaking amidst dark, turbulent clouds.

As they generally form by means of a specific mechanism — when the white dwarf galaxy hits a specific mass— these explosions always have a well-known luminosity and are thus used as markers (standard candles) for scientists to obtain and measure distances throughout the universe.

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