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The Veil Nebula is a very interesting object. This photo is the Western Half only, designation: NGC6960. The eastern half not visible in this photo is NGC6992. It is a Supernova Remnant. This ghostly structure is all that remains of a Red Giant Star that went Supernova about 5,000 years ago. The stars' hydrogen fuel depleted, the star underwent a massive explosion. To go Supernova it must have had a mass above 8 solar masses and the central core was larger than 1.4 solar masses. It exploded with unimaginable force, with internal temperatures reaching somewhere between 10-40 Billion Kelvin. Calculations suggest that once a Supernova collapse begins, it only takes a few seconds. It temporarily shines with the luminosity of about 10 Billion suns. As bright as all the stars in our Milkyway Galaxy combined ! Most likely it would be visible for a few weeks in broad daylight. It has been suggested by some Astronomers that The Star of Bethlehem was a Supernova. In our Galaxy, Supernovae occur on average about once in 140 years. Any of us could live to see one bright enough to be visible in daylight. The green and yellow visible in this photo are a result of Ionized Oxygen. A phenomena not normally seen in Emission Nebula such as NGC7000 or M16. The Full Veil Nebula has a diameter of about 65 light Years and is some 1,400 Light Years distant. The wispy structure is expanding at the rate of 70Km/second.
Additional Notes: On Saturday 21AG04 NGC6960 was visible in my 80mm Nextar Refractor. This was amazing in itself due to the fact that NGC6960 is extreamly dim. With a Lumicon UHC filter it stood out agenst the black background very prominently. |
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