🌫️ Nebula
Veil Nebula
Delicate threads of gas from a star that exploded about 8,000 years ago.
- Distance
- 2,100 light-years away
- Size
- 110 light-years across
Did you know?
- The star that exploded was about 20 times heavier than the Sun.
- It lies in Cygnus, the Swan.
Photographed or visited by
Hubble Space Telescope
Thirty-six years above the weather, and still working.
The life of a starA step in a star’s life: a supernova
Compare Veil Nebula with the Milky WaySide by side, to scale, in the app
More NASA photos of Veil NebulaStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app
Explore more
All of deep space
The Sun
Our star, an ordinary one that keeps everything here alive.
Betelgeuse
A red supergiant in Orion that will one day explode.
Alpha Centauri
The closest star system to the Sun.
Eta Carinae
A pair of giant stars, one of them about 90 times heavier than the Sun.
Mira
A red giant star racing through space with a tail like a comet.
Zeta Ophiuchi
A runaway star, flung out when its partner exploded.