Did you ever look up at stars as a kid and wonder how those little twinkling stars in the sky might look up close in all their majesty.
Well, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured something really special with its image of an exploded star, that looks kind of heavenly.
Purdue University scientist Danny Milisavljevic, said via a NASA statement: “It’s really unbelievable after all these years studying Cas A to now resolve those details, which are providing us with transformational insight into how this star exploded.”
The wondrous star, Cassiopeia A, is well-known supernova remnants around 11,000 light years away from Earth’s galaxy.
The James Webb camera captured materials reacting to gas being set free as the star accelerates to its final moments.
A number of filaments are too tiny to be observed by the telescope’s NIRCam but are 10 billion miles across, according to NASA – 107 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
The image was shown recently by First Lady Jill Biden at the White House’s Advent Calendar gathering.
NASA is looking into just why previously unknown structures, the ‘Green Monster,’ inside Cassiopeia A, are now missing in this image.
Molecules and dust churn around and then transform into new stars and planets as the camera detects a glorious ending and rebirth.
Discoveries such as Cassiopeia A are a reminder of what an incredible universe we have beyond our stars!
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