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Cygnus Loop Blink

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope got a very close-up look at one sliver of the Cygnus Loop nebula—a huge bubble of glowing gasses about 120 light-years in diameter. At the outer edge of the expanding bubble produced by an exploded star 20,000 years ago, they found gossamer filaments stretching across two light-years that look like twisted ribbons of light.

A blink between Hubble images taken in 2001 (with Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2)) and 2020 (with Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)) shows these filaments of glowing hydrogen in orange and cooling ionized oxygen in blue. The hydrogen filaments resemble lines in a wrinkled bedsheet seen from the side. The wrinkles arise as the shock wave encounters more or less dense material in the interstellar medium.

Analyzing the shock wave’s location, astronomers found that the filaments have not slowed down at all in the last 20 years of Hubble observations, and they haven’t changed shape. The material is speeding into interstellar space at over half a million miles per hour—fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in less than half an hour.

The shock wave is moving towards the top of these images.

  • Release Date
    September 28, 2023
  • Science Release
    Living on the Edge: Supernova Bubble Expands in New Hubble Time-Lapse Movie
    Read the release
  • Credits
    NASA, ESA, STScI, Ravi Sankrit (STScI)

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A horizontal, undulating linear structure resembling overlapping strings of yarn extends edge-to-edge across the frame, but takes up only a quarter of the width at its widest point. Mostly orange with some blue, these are filaments of glowing gasses, which resemble lines in a wrinkled bedsheet.

Cygnus Loop

Though a doomed star exploded some 20,000 years ago, its tattered remnants continue racing into space at breakneck speeds – and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the action. The nebula, called the Cygnus Loop, forms a bubble-like shape that is about 120 light-years in...

Image titled "Cygnus Loop HST WFC3/UVIS" with compass arrows, color key and scale bar. A horizontal, undulating linear structure resembling overlapping strings of yarn extends edge-to-edge across the frame, but takes up only a quarter of the width at its widest point. Mostly orange with some blue, these are filaments of glowing gasses, which resemble lines in a wrinkled bedsheet. At left, near the top of the image is a color key showing the Hubble instrument filters used to create the image. The assigned filter colors are blue: F502N and orange: F656N. At lower left is a scale bar labeled "0.5 light-years." At lower right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points in the 10 o'clock direction. The north arrow points towards 2 o'clock.

Cygnus Loop Compass Image

Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to zoom in for a close-up look at one sliver of the Cygnus Loop nebula—a huge bubble of glowing gasses. They found gossamer filaments resembling lines in a wrinkled bedsheet stretched across two light-years. This region lies at the...

Telescope image including distant stars are overlaid with semi-transparent graphics representing the constellation Cygnus, as a swan. Thin blue lines connect the actual stars of the constellation.

Cygnus Loop Zoom + Morph

Though a doomed star exploded some 20,000 years ago, its tattered remnants continue racing into space at breakneck speeds – and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught the action. The nebula, called the Cygnus Loop, forms a bubble-like shape that is about 120 light-years in...

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Last Updated
Mar 10, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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