NASA’s Image of the Day Captures Glowing Remnants of Supernova Cassiopeia A

According to the Economic Desk of Webangah News Agency, massive stars in the Milky Way galaxy lead spectacular lives. Their nuclear furnaces ignite from the collapse of vast cosmic clouds, creating heavy elements in their cores. After just a few million years, the enriched material is ejected into interstellar space, where new star formation can begin anew.

The expanding supernova remnant known as Cassiopeia A represents the final stage of a star’s life cycle. Light from the supernova explosion that created these remnants was first observed in Earth’s sky approximately 350 years ago, though it took 11,000 years for that light to reach our planet.

This sharp image from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam reveals still-hot filaments and knots within the supernova remnant. The expanding white, smoke-like outer shell spans about 20 light-years in diameter. A series of light echoes from the catastrophic explosion of the massive star have also been identified in Webb’s detailed images of the surrounding interstellar environment.