Yes, we left the first week of school behind. The sky is ready for school with you. You may be wondering how it is. First of all, let's prepare our bag for school, let's start with our pencil box. If you forgot your pencil or couldn't find it, how about borrowing it from the sky? If you ask what this means, let's learn that the image is the Pencil Nebula (or NGC 2736) and that it is 800 light years away and travelling at about 400,000 miles per hour.

Did you know there was such a nebula?

Image description:

In this NASA Hubble image, a cream and brown column of gas and dust cuts diagonally across the frame, surrounded by other gas and bright stars. The column resembles a pencil, hence its common name. The Pencil Nebula, NGC 2736, is part of the massive Vela supernova remnant. The region of the Pencil Nebula captured in this image is about three-quarters of a light year across. The nebula's bright appearance is due to regions of dense gas struck by the supernova shock wave. As the shockwave travels through space (from right to left in the image), it strikes interstellar material. Initially, the gas heats up to millions of degrees Celsius, but then cools, emitting the optical light visible in the image.

 

Image credits:

NASA, Hubble Legacy Project (STScI, AURA)