NASA kicks off 2024 by capturing at least two exploded objects in deep space

NASA has taken to its blog to share an incredible new image of a supernova remnant, or the leftover remains of an exploded star.

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However, this new image doesn't feature just one of remains of a now-dead star, but at least two, with astronomers leaning on the side of more being discovered upon further inspection. The above image is 30 Doradus B (30 Dor B), and is a large region of space that contains millions of stars that have been forming for 8 - 10 million years. The region of space is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way.

NASA combined data from its Chandra X-Ray Observatory (represented in purple), optical data from the Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile (shown in orange and cyan), and additional optical data from NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope (black and white). Studies astronomical objects such as 30 Dor B allows astronomers to learn more about the evolution of stars, and the overall universe.

"Both the pulsar and the bright X-rays seen in the center of 30 Dor B likely resulted from a supernova explosion after the collapse of a massive star about 5,000 years ago. The larger, faint shell of X-rays, however, is too big to have resulted from the same supernova. Instead, the team thinks that at least two supernova explosions took place in 30 Dor B, with the X-ray shell produced by another supernova more than 5,000 years ago. It is also quite possible that even more happened in the past," writes NASA