NASA will launch a rocket tomorrow to detect a 20,000-year-old supernova

CTOnews.com, October 29 (CTOnews.com)-the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to launch a sounding rocket with special imaging and spectral instruments from the White Sands Missile range in New Mexico at 11:35 est (11:35 Beijing time on the 30th) in an attempt to gather as much data as possible about the Cygnus supernova remnant during a short trip into space. Its target is a huge cloud of dust and gas, called the Cygnus Ring or Veil Nebula, formed by a star that exploded and died about 20,000 years ago and is still expanding.

The task, called the Integrated Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopy experiment (INFUSE), will only observe Cygnus for a few minutes to capture light at far ultraviolet wavelengths. It is expected to fly to an altitude of about 150 miles (CTOnews.com Note: about 241.4 kilometers) before returning to Earth by parachute.

The Cygnus ring, located about 2600 light-years from Earth, was formed by the collapse of a star thought to be 20 times the size of the sun. Since clouds are still expanding at 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) per hour, they are a good choice to study how supernovae affect the formation of new star systems. "supernovae like the one that created Cygnus rings have a huge impact on galaxy formation," said Brian Fleming, lead researcher for the INFUSE mission.

"by capturing the light emitted as the shock wave hits the cold gas floating around the Milky way, INFUSE will observe how supernovae pour energy into the Milky way," Fleming said. When INFUSE returns to the ground, the team plans to repair it and launch it again.