This is a Hubble telescope image of the tattered
debris of a star that exploded 3,000 years ago as a supernova. This
supernova remnant, called N132D, lies 169,000 light-years from
Earth in the satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
A Hubble snapshot of the supernova's inner regions shows the complex
collisions that take place as fast-moving material slams into cool, dense
interstellar clouds. This level of detail in the expanding filaments could
only be seen previously in much closer supernova remnants. Now, Hubble's
capabilities extend the detailed study of supernovae to the distance of a
neighboring galaxy.
It’s paradoxical that this supernova is described by an ancient
instrument like the harpsichord. It exploded 3,000 years ago - 2,400 years
before the Barock epoch even. So the harpsichord demonstrates the transience
and shows quite nicely the extraordinary capabilities of ArtSongTM.
