APOD 1.3

Is that a giant gas cloud in space? Well yes, however its a very important gas cloud. This is remnants of supernova Puppis A. Over 7,000 lights years away, a massive star exploded creating this cloud of dust. However this dust is actually heavy elements that can be used to create new stars and even new life way in the future. Supernovas help scientists to look at and figure out how humans first existed and origins of the universe. Since this cloud exploded 7,000 light years away, light from the explosion reached earth around 3,700 years ago. This cloud is enormous. The complete size of this cloud is around 180 light years wide. The Chandra and XMM/ Newton observations were able to take advanced X-rays of the sky and find this cloud. The blue is gas heated by the supernova shock wave. The red and green parts are regions of warm dust. This cloud is not just a beautiful thing to look at but also can help form new planets and life and can help us figure out where we came from.  

Supernova Remnant Puppis A 
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/IAFE/ G. Dubner et al., ESA/XMM-Newton 
Infrared: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/ R. Arendt et al.

                http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140912.html