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A violent and chaotic-looking mass of gas and dust is seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby supernova remnant. Denoted N 63A, the object is the remains of a massive star that exploded, spewing its gaseous layers out into an already turbulent region.
The supernova remnant is part of a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), an irregular galaxy 160,000 light-years from our own Milky Way.
Supernova remnants have long been thought to set off episodes of star formation when their expanding shock encounters nearby gas. N 63A is still young, and its ruthless shocks are destroying the ambient gas clouds, rather than coercing them to collapse and form stars.
Image Credit: NASA/ESA/HEIC and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Image enhancement: Jean-Baptiste Faure
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