NGC 6992: A Glimpse of the Veil
Credit & Copyright:
Steve Mandel,
Hidden Valley Observatory
After 5,000 years, the gorgeous
Veil
Nebula is still turning heads.
Cataloged as NGC 6992, these glowing
filaments of interstellar
shocked gas are part of a larger spherical
supernova remnant known as the
Cygnus Loop or the
Veil Nebula -- expanding debris from a star which
exploded over 5,000 years ago.
This color digital image of a
bit
of the Veil has been processed
and enhanced to reveal stunning details in the diaphanous cosmic cloud.
Seen from our perspective against a rich Milky Way star field,
the Veil Nebula is
now
known to lie some 1,400 light-years away toward the
constellation Cygnus.
At that distance,
witnesses
to the original stellar explosion would have
seen a star in the heavens
increase in brightness to about -8 magnitude, roughly corresponding to
the brightness of the crescent Moon.