We are in the final days of 2023 and the countdown to 2024 continues. NASA and First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill BidenFor the first time in history there is a ‘White House Advent CalendarOne of the first images of the calendar is From the James Webb Space Telescope It’s coming. This image contains cosmic debris that we cannot see with the naked eye.

Stars live by converting different elements into other elements over billions of years. When they run out of nuclear fuel Some collapse in on themselves, some disappear with small explosions, and some scatter particles into space with spectacular explosions. Here are the latest supernova We call it.

The remnant of a dying star

With NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) equipment on the James Webb Space Telescope Cassiopeia A (Cas A) A so-called supernova was observed. In fact, this supernova is one of the most studied structures by scientists, but it has never been seen up close before. NIRCam It has not been investigated. In April, the supernova’s remnants were examined with Webb’s MIRI instrument.

The bright pink and orange images in the image, inner shell of supernova It consists of elements such as sulfur, argon, neon and oxygen. Although it is less colorful than the image taken with MIRI, it shows us something else: the ghost of the supernova. The hazy, bright background is actually synchrotron radiation. This electromagnetic radiation, which results from the radial acceleration of charged particles, also shows the area that the supernova once covered.