The Spaghetti Nebula

The Spaghetti Nebula. That really is the common name for this object. It's also goes by the much more boring names of Simeis 147 and SH2-240. It is an extremely faint supernova remnant located about half way between the constellations Auriga and Gemini. The remnant is pretty big with a diameter of approximately 3 degrees. That's the width of 6 full moons. It's located about 3000 light-years away. The supernova that created the spaghetti nebula occurred about 40,000 years ago. All that's left is a spinning neutron star known as a pulsar surrounded by the intricate filaments of gas and dust seen in the image. The material in this nebula is still expanding at a rate of nearly 600 miles per second. At that speed, you could travel from New York to Los Angeles in 4.085 seconds!