Simeis 147, the Spaghetti Nebula, is a large, faint supernova remnant on the border of Taurus and Auriga, a tangle of thin filaments around a young pulsar.
At a glance
| type | supernova remnant |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 2,940 light-years (900 pc) |
| its light left it | 2,940 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 160 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Simeis 147
Simeis 147 takes its name from the Simeiz observatory in Crimea, where it was catalogued. It is a supernova remnant spread across a large area of sky, made of fine, tangled filaments of glowing hydrogen that have earned it its nickname.
It is so faint that it shows only on long exposures through filters that isolate the red light of hydrogen. A pulsar near its centre is thought to be the neutron star left by the explosion, and the two appear to be of similar age.
Its filaments are where the expanding shock meets the gas around it and compresses it, so the remnant is a picture of the explosion’s edge rather than of its debris.
What you see in the piece
It is drawn as a wide, faint, hollow shell of shocked gas; at its honest brightness it is hard to see in visible light, and the radio band shows its outline.
Measured or modelled
The drawn extent is modelled from its size on the sky and distance; the age is inferred.
Questions
Why is Simeis 147 called the Spaghetti Nebula?
Its light comes from long, thin, tangled filaments of glowing hydrogen, which in deep photographs look like strands of spaghetti.
How far away is Simeis 147?
Simeis 147 is about 2,940 light-years (900 pc) from the Sun.