Fact Sheet
Dust Storm
Dust expelled from an exploding star engulfs a cluster of nearby stars in this false-color image from two space-based observatories. All that remains of the original star, which exploded as a supernova, is a pulsar (bright white dot, left of center) -- a ball of matter that is several times as massive as the Sun but the size of a city. It spins rapidly, blowing out a "wind" of high-energy particles (shown in blue, which represents X-rays). The wind is surrounded by lower-speed clouds of dust (green, yellow, and red, representing infrared energy) that were expelled before the star exploded. These clouds have expanded to such giant proportions that they surround many other stars. [NASA/CXC/JPL/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA]
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