It’s The Firefox!

This is the N63A, one of the largest supernova remnants of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a close galactic neighbor of our Milky Way Galaxy. At least 2,000 years ago, light from a massive stellar explosion in the LMC first reached our planet. The rampaging explosion can now be seen to be moving out — “destroying or displacing ambient gas clouds while leaving behind relatively dense knots of gas and dust,” which have been themselves compressed and may further contract to create new stars. Some of these stars could probably explode in a supernova, and continue the cycle.

Featured here is a combined image of N63A in the X-ray from the Chandra Space Telescope and in visible light by Hubble. The prominent knot of gas and dust on the upper right -- informally dubbed the Firefox -- is very bright in visible light, while the larger supernova remnant shines most brightly in X-rays.

(Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, Chandra ; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt)