Fact Sheet
Dead But Not Buried
A massive cloud of gas and dust is all that remains of a once-mightly star that blew itself to bits. Astronomer Johannes Kepler noted the bright "new" star in the night sky in late 1604, so today it's known as Kepler's Supernova. The explosion blasted the star's outer layers into space at thousands of miles per second, so this bubble of gas now spans about 14 light-years -- about three times the distance from the Sun to the next closest star system. Astronomers are continuing to learn more about the final days of the stars that end their lives as supernovae. This image is a composite that combines data from three orbiting observatories. [NASA/ESA/JHU/R.Sankrit, W.Blair]
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