The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of a small fraction of the Veil Nebula, which is part of a supernova remnant called the Cygnus Loop.

The Cygnus Loop is a large donut-shaped nebula located approximately 2,400 light-years away from Earth.

Also known as W78 and Sharpless 103, it is actually an expanding blast wave from a supernova explosion that occurred between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.

Its name comes from its position in the northern constellation of Cygnus, where it covers an area 36 times larger than the full Moon.

The visual portion of the supernova remnant is known as the Veil Nebula, also called the Cirrus Nebula or the Filamentary Nebula.

“This nebula is the remnant of a star roughly 20 times as massive as the Sun that exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago,” the Hubble astronomers said.

This new image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the optical part of the spectrum.

“This view combines images taken in three different filters, highlighting emission from hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen atoms,” the astronomers said.

“The image shows just a small fraction of the Veil Nebula. If you could see the entire nebula without the aid of a telescope, it would be as wide as six full Moons placed side by side.”

“Although this image captures the Veil Nebula at just a single point in time, it will help researchers understand how the supernova remnant has evolved over decades.”

“Combining this snapshot with Hubble observations from 1994 will reveal the motion of individual knots and filaments of gas over that span of time, enhancing our understanding of this stunning nebula.”