Object Analysis

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.

The remnant has expanded to cover an immense area of the sky—roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the width of the full moon). The brightest sections are designated as separate objects: The Western Veil (NGC 6960 or "The Witch's Broom"), The Eastern Veil (NGC 6992), and Pickering's Triangle.

Visually, the Veil appears as delicate, lace-like filaments of blue and red gas. These filaments are actually the shockwaves of the explosion moving through the interstellar medium, heating the gas as they pass.