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Cygnus Loop Compass Image

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.

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 outer edge of the expanding bubble, and was produced by an exploding star 20,000 years ago.

Analyzing the shock wave's location, astronomers found that the filaments haven't 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.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    20:56:04.18
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    31:56:25.90
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Cygnus
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    2500 light-years
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Image is about 2.4 arcmin across (about 1.74 light-years)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    The HST observations include those from program: 15893 (R. Sankrit) 

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    WFC3/UVIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    July 1, 2020
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F502N, F656N
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Cygnus Loop
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Supernova Remnant
  • 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, Ravi Sankrit (STScI); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Display), 3629 × 1415
    png (9.28 MB)
  • Full Res (For Print), 3629 × 1415
    tif (11.66 MB)
  • 2000 × 780
    jpg (649.77 KB)
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.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the The Hubble Space Telescope using the WFC3/UVIS instrument. Two filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Cyan: F502N, Orange: F656N

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

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Details

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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