"Hubble's Time-Lapse Reveals Expanding 20,000-Year-Old Supernova Bubble"

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a time-lapse movie of the expanding remnants of a supernova explosion that occurred 20,000 years ago. The Cygnus Loop nebula, located approximately 2,600 light-years away, forms a bubble-like structure that is 120 light-years in diameter. Astronomers used Hubble to zoom in on a small section of the nebula, revealing gossamer filaments resembling wrinkles in a bedsheet. These filaments, located at the outer edge of the expanding bubble, are plowing into interstellar space at speeds exceeding half a million miles per hour. The shock wave from the explosion has not slowed down in the last 20 years and is providing insights into the density differences and turbulence encountered in interstellar space.