Vela Supernova Remnant

Vela Supernova Remnant — nebula, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Vela Supernova Remnant in an interactive 3D view of space. Inspect its astronomical data and the observations or reconstructions behind the model.

The tattered blast wave of a star that exploded about 11,000 years ago, one of the nearest supernova remnants to Earth. Its filaments sprawl across eight degrees of the southern sky, and the pulsar left behind still spins 11 times a second. From Earth’s side its pieces line up into the photograph; fly round it and they part into its 3D shape, whose depths are a model.

Type

Supernova remnant

Distance

About 940 light-years

Exploded

About 11,000 years ago

Size

About 8° across our sky — 16 full Moons, some 130 light-years

Heart

The Vela Pulsar, spinning 11 times a second

Shown here

Digitized Sky Survey 2 photograph with its stars removed, cut into many thousands of pieces (fine threads along its filaments, broad ones only for smooth glow) at different depths: from Earth they line up into the photograph; from elsewhere they show a folded, filamentary shell

3D shape

Illustrative: a shell the size of the X-ray remnant (Aschenbach et al. 1995)

Image credit

Digitized Sky Survey 2: STScI/NASA and UK Schmidt Telescope plates

Explore Vela Supernova Remnant in 3D

Vela Supernova Remnant is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.