Roughly 3000 light years from us is this faint but dramatic supernova remnant. Simeis 147 is around 40,000 years old and is faint enough that it’s essentially invisible to the naked eye. Surprising then that these faint filaments of hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur take up a full 3 degrees of the sky (6 full moons).

40,000 years isn’t very long on astrophysical timescales. A reminder of how short lived these beautiful apparitions are. It’s easy to forget, after all, that the dramatic crab nebula is a mere 1000 years old…

Credit & Copyright: J-P Metsävainio

Image source: APOD