The US space agency NASA has released an amazing picture of the scattered ‘stellar shrapnel’. This mesmerising picture shows the aftermath of a star that exploded 160,000 light-years away from Earth.
The striking image is captured from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3.
As per NASA, the event took place thousands of years ago after a star detonated and scattered the steller shrapnel. The star was a white dwarf belonging to neighbouring galaxy called the Magellanic Cloud.
"Around 97 percent of stars within the Milky Way that are between a tenth and eight times the mass of the sun are expected to end up as white dwarfs. These stars can face a number of different fates, one of which is to explode as supernovae, some of the brightest events ever observed in the universe." said NASA.
The white dwarf can draw material from a close companion as it is a part of binary star system. After it siphons more than the limit, it ignites as a Type Ia supernova.
The supernova remnant captured is known as DEM L71. It formed when a white dwarf came to the end of its life and torn itself apart, bringing out the superheated cloud of debris in the process, reported NASA.
