Back Supernovae are among the most spectacular and violent events in the stellar universe, however, they are relatively rare. Supernovae are exploding massive stars at the end stage of their evolution. The explosion of a single supernova can release enough energy to outshine the entire galaxy where the explosion is occuring. The EUVE satellite has detected the remnant glow of supernovae that exploded tens of thousands of years ago in our own Milky Way. One such detection is of the Vela Supernova Remnant, known to astronomers through observations in the visible and other wavelength ranges besides the EUV. This image shows the Vela Supernova Remnant as seen by the EUVE imaging telescopes in 1992. The image shows 100 Angstrom extreme ultraviolet radiation from the remnant, which is 1600 light years away, emitted by hot gas at temperatures of 1 - 3 million degrees Kelvin. The gas at these high temperatures is produced by the shock wave from the supernova explosion 13,000 years ago plowing into the diffuse interstellar medium between stars. A circle with the size of the full Moon is shown for scale. If this celestial feature were bright enough to be detected by our eyes (in either visible or EUV radiation) we would be able to enjoy a display several times the size of the full Moon. Next
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