Explanation:
Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history,
a new light must suddenly have appeared in the
night sky and faded after a few weeks.
Today we know this light was an exploding star and record the colorful expanding cloud as the
Veil Nebula.
Pictured above is the west end of the
Veil Nebula known technically as
NGC 6960 but less formally as the
Witch's
Broom Nebula.
The expanding debris cloud gains its colors by sweeping up and
exciting existing nearby gas.
The supernova remnant
lies about 1400 light-years away towards the constellation of
Cygnus.
This Witch's Broom actually spans over three times the
angular size of the full
Moon.
The bright star 52
Cygni
is visible with the unaided eye from
a dark location but unrelated to the ancient
supernova.
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