The image below shows the remnants of the explosion of a star in the constellation Vera, part of a group of constellations called Argo. The explosion of the star is thought to have been seen by the earliest humans in recorded history, but its aftermath is still visible today. When the star first exploded, the outer layers of the destroyed star pushed into the interstellar medium surrounding the star. This interstellar medium consists of large clouds of mostly hydrogen that are usually hard to detect as they emit very little light and absorb few, very specific wavelengths of light. The clashing of the outer layer of the star and the interstellar cloud created a spherical shock wave that is observable with x-rays. The image below shows the filaments of the shock wave, which are colored as the escaping gas decays and reacts with the interstellar medium. Sitting at the center of the explosion is a pulsar, a dense, highly-magnetized, rotating neutron star. This particular neutron star rotates completely ten times within one second.
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