A delicate red ribbon floating eerily in our galaxy has been captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The swirling gas is the remnant of a massive stellar explosion that was recorded more than 1,000 years ago.
On May 1, 1006 A.D, observers from across the world witnessed and recorded the arrival of light from what is now called SN 1006 - a supernova explosion caused by the final death throes of a white dwarf star nearly 7,000 light-years away.
The supernova surpassed Venus to become the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon. It was visible even during the day for weeks, and remained visible to the naked eye for at least two and a half years before fading away.
The shock wave from the supernova expanded nearly 20 million miles per hour after the explosion and now has a diameter of nearly 60 light-years. It is still expanding at roughly six million miles per hour.
Scientists first detected a faint optical emission from the supernova remnant in 1976.
The close-up image of the twisting ribbon of light measure five million light years across and shows where the expanding blast wave from the supernova is now sweeping into very tenuous surrounding gas.
Far off galaxies can be seen dotting the image in orange, while most of the white dots are stars in our Milky Way.
Hubble's image is a composite made from visible light emitted by hydrogen atoms in the remnant.
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