APOD: Simeis 147: Supernova Remnant (2012 Oct 09)

[APOD Robot]

Simeis 147: Supernova Remnant

Explanation: It's easy to get lost following the intricate filaments in this detailed mosaic image of faint supernova remnant Simeis 147 (S147). Also cataloged as Sh2-240, it covers nearly 3 degrees or 6 full moons on the sky. That's about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. Anchoring the frame at the right, bright star Elnath (Beta Tauri) is seen towards the boundary of the constellations Taurus and Auriga, almost exactly opposite the galactic center in planet Earth's sky. This sharp composite includes image data taken through a narrow-band filter to highlight emission from hydrogen atoms tracing the shocked, glowing gas. The supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth 40,000 years ago. But the expanding remnant is not the only aftermath. The cosmic catastrophe also left behind a spinning neutron star or pulsar, all that remains of the original star's core.

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[Bugwriter]

The supernova remnant is 40,000 years old and light from it first reached earth 40,000 years ago? I would think every astronomer on the planet would be studying that object.

[Chris Peterson]

The supernova remnant is 40,000 years old and light from it first reached earth 40,000 years ago? I would think every astronomer on the planet would be studying that object. ;-)

The light from the remnant didn't reach the Earth 40,000 years ago... it reached the Earth when this image was taken. The light from the supernova itself reached the Earth 40,000 years ago. The remnant has been evolving over the last 40,000 years.

[Ann]

It's a lovely image, and Rogelio Bernal Andreo is one of the true heroes of astrophotography!

Ann

[starsurfer]

Spectacular image of what is surely a very faint supernova remnant! As well as Ha, it also contains a lot of OIII emission and there are very few images that include exposures in this waveband.

[Jim Kinnaird]

If the supernova happened 40,000 years ago and light takes 3,000 years to get from there to here, we're seeing what the remnant looked like after 37,000 years of evolution.

[ritwik]

supernova : they are the beautiful reminder that nothing last forever

_{http://dotsub.com/view/9063c8e8-e2f7-43 ... 3bbb204890}

[neufer]

supernova : they are the beautiful reminder that nothing last forever

http://dotsub.com/view/9063c8e8-e2f7-43 ... 3bbb204890

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 02#p185202


Art (Definitely NOT nothing) Neuendorffer (for E.Ver)

[neufer]

If the supernova happened 40,000 years ago and light takes 3,000 years to get from there to here, we're seeing what the remnant looked like after 37,000 years of evolution.

A "happening" is an earth event.

The Kepler supernova "happened" in 1604 so far as we are concerned.

The supernova remnant has been observed on earth for 40,000 years of devolution.

[neufer]

Spectacular image of what is surely a very faint supernova remnant! As well as Ha, it also contains a lot of OIII emission and there are very few images that include exposures in this waveband.

OIII emission is generally the result of ultraviolet irradiation from a white dwarf CS.

This has just a neutron CS

The only narrowband data was H-Alpha:

<<Successfully combining narrowband data (H-Alpha in this case) and (L)RGB data can be tricky. One of the usual results is that, since H-Alpha data tends to produce very small stars, when combined with broadband data, the resulting image often presents a rather severe ringing around the stars. Also, some conventional techniques rely on mixing H-Alpha with the red (R) and blue (B) data, but in this case, my RGB data was rather poor so I couldn't rely on just this technique. Therefore, for this particular image I followed a number of conventional as well as non-conventional methods that proved to be rather successful in producing an image that visually documents this area of the sky. Also, as usual in many of my recent images, a multi-scale approach dominated post-processing, in particular to bring out the fainter details that hide behind the swarm of stars.>>

<<It's easy to get lost following the intricate filaments in this detailed image of faint supernova remnant Simeis 147. Seen towards the constellation Taurus it covers nearly 3 degrees (6 full moons) on the sky corresponding to a width of 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. The color composite image includes eight hours of exposure time with an H-alpha filter, transmiting only the light from recombining hydrogen atoms in the expanding nebulosity and tracing the regions of shocked, glowing gas. This supernova remnant has an apparent age of about 100,000 years - meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth 100,000 years ago - but this expanding remnant is not the only aftermath. The cosmic catastrophe also left behind a spinning neutron star or pulsar, all that remains of the original star's core.>>

[casus b]

If it doesn't have a name yet, I nominate the "Rose".

[NGC3314]

Like may supernova remnants in its age range, Simeis 147 does have reasonably strong [O III] emission (I found a paper in a Soviet journal from the 1970s quoting ratios of 2.0-4.6 relative to the strength of H-beta). As well as by reprocessing deep UV, these transitions can also be powered by rapid shocks in the interstellar medium, which supernova remnants can do for a long time. Multifilter images of such SNRs as the Cygnus Loop show how the ionization state can change on very fine scales as shocks encounter denser clouds and are redirected (sometimes wrapping around them).

[Anthony Barreiro]

This is a beautiful picture! I love how the supernova remnant appears to hang in space, very three dimensional. It makes me imagine being on the bridge of a starship exploring the galactic neighborhood.

I've never observed this object myself, although being so close to Beta Tauri it's pretty easy to find! A quick internet search led to this interesting report and drawing from Rich Jakiel. If you mouse over the drawing, you'll see a corresponding ccd photo. Rich used a high-quality 20-inch f-3.9 telescope and, interestingly, an O-III filter, and reports a limiting visual magnitude of 6.5. So I'm probably not going to see this one from the back yard with my 5-inch schmidt cassegrain.

[KimM]

"The supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth 40,000 years ago." --APOD

Incorrect. If the supernova remnant was created approximately 40,000 years ago and it is 3,000 light years away, then what we are observing today is 37, 000 years old. Be careful with the units.

[Chris Peterson]

"The supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth 40,000 years ago." --APOD

Incorrect. If the supernova remnant was created approximately 40,000 years ago and it is 3,000 light years away, then what we are observing today is 37, 000 years old. Be careful with the units. :)

Incorrect. It doesn't matter how far away the object is. In most cases (including this one) astronomers and physicists are only interested in when the observation is made. When it "really" happened doesn't matter in the slightest. The caption is correct as written.

[Dave1234]

What is the small nebula just to the left of Simeis 147? And do I see an even smaller red nebula to its left? Perhaps it should be called Siphonaptera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Siphonaptera

[Boomer12k]

If it doesn't have a name yet, I nominate the "Rose".

Unfortunately, it has a name....The Spaghetti Nebula. YUMMY!!!

If you want to see other interesting shots you find on Apod. In you search engine websearch......Images of (Blank), and fill in the blank. Lots of other interesting shots of this nebula.

:---[===] *

[BMAONE23]

What is the small nebula just to the left of Simeis 147? And do I see an even smaller red nebula to its left? Perhaps it should be called Siphonaptera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Siphonaptera

The larger/brighter of the two to the left is LBN 827 (Lynds Bright Nebula)

Looking at Google Sky, it appears at RA 5H51M54.89S DEC 27d01'28.96"

[bystander]

The larger/brighter of the two to the left is LBN 827 (Lynds Bright Nebula)

Looking at Google Sky, it appears at RA 5H51M54.89S DEC 27d01'28.96"

I've seen the larger labeled as LBN 826 and the smaller as LBN 827.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/6930595750/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/6930606968/

[saturno2]

Beautiful image
Supernova
The beautiful visible Universe

[PhilT]

Never ceases to amaze me, we all loosely throw out numbers like "150 light years across"..... but I wonder if we really get how enormously big that is compared to little old us.

The biggest thing we can get our heads around is probably the Solar system - which is about 1/700th of a light year across. Therefore taking ~1/2 day for light to travel from one side to the other.

Put in another perspective, one could fit 105,000 (150x700) Solar systems end to end from one side of this Supernova remnant to the other.

[neufer]

Never ceases to amaze me, we all loosely throw out numbers like "150 light years across"..... but I wonder if we really get how enormously big that is compared to little old us.

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 62#p185242

[BMAONE23]

The larger/brighter of the two to the left is LBN 827 (Lynds Bright Nebula)

Looking at Google Sky, it appears at RA 5H51M54.89S DEC 27d01'28.96"

I've seen the larger labeled as LBN 826 and the smaller as LBN 827.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/6930595750/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiroc/6930606968/

This is interesting...The LBN database lists LBN 827 as visually larger than LBN 826 http://www.atscope.com.au/database/lbn.txt

The catalog lists LBN 826 with a dimension of 7 x 7 arcmin with an area of 0.011(degree^2)
It also lists LBN 827 with a dimension of 10 x 10 arcmin with an area of 0.014 (degree^2)

[starsurfer]

Spectacular image of what is surely a very faint supernova remnant! As well as Ha, it also contains a lot of OIII emission and there are very few images that include exposures in this waveband.

OIII emission is generally the result of ultraviolet irradiation from a white dwarf CS.

This has just a neutron CS

The only narrowband data was H-Alpha:

<<Successfully combining narrowband data (H-Alpha in this case) and (L)RGB data can be tricky. One of the usual results is that, since H-Alpha data tends to produce very small stars, when combined with broadband data, the resulting image often presents a rather severe ringing around the stars. Also, some conventional techniques rely on mixing H-Alpha with the red (R) and blue (B) data, but in this case, my RGB data was rather poor so I couldn't rely on just this technique. Therefore, for this particular image I followed a number of conventional as well as non-conventional methods that proved to be rather successful in producing an image that visually documents this area of the sky. Also, as usual in many of my recent images, a multi-scale approach dominated post-processing, in particular to bring out the fainter details that hide behind the swarm of stars.>>

<<It's easy to get lost following the intricate filaments in this detailed image of faint supernova remnant Simeis 147. Seen towards the constellation Taurus it covers nearly 3 degrees (6 full moons) on the sky corresponding to a width of 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. The color composite image includes eight hours of exposure time with an H-alpha filter, transmiting only the light from recombining hydrogen atoms in the expanding nebulosity and tracing the regions of shocked, glowing gas. This supernova remnant has an apparent age of about 100,000 years - meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth 100,000 years ago - but this expanding remnant is not the only aftermath. The cosmic catastrophe also left behind a spinning neutron star or pulsar, all that remains of the original star's core.>>

I didn't say that the image included OIII exposures, I was merely stating that this particular remnant also includes OIII, which is rarely seen as nearly all images are Ha only. You're wrong when you say that OIII is only the result of the effects of a white dwarf. Many supernova remnants and Wolf Rayet nebulae, which don't feature a white dwarf exhibit bright OIII emission. Visual OIII emission can arise from oxygen gas receiving enough energy to be ionized, which usually requires more energy to be ionized than hydrogen. The OIII in supernova remnants is usually due to the intense high energies created by the shockwave of the gas colliding with the ISM. Another interesting thing is that OIII emission is more susceptible to dust extinction than hydrogen-alpha.
You can see a comparison of Ha and OIII in Simeis 147 in this image by Stephane Zoll: http://www.astrosurf.com/zoll/images/SH2_240_HvsO.jpg

[Chris Peterson]

Never ceases to amaze me, we all loosely throw out numbers like "150 light years across"..... but I wonder if we really get how enormously big that is compared to little old us.

Personally, I have no problem at all visualizing 150 light years. These are the sort of units I work with all the time, and consequently they seem very natural to me. I don't think that people have any inherent difficulty dealing with scales outside our daily experience, it's just a question of familiarity.