Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. A supernova explosion of a high-mass star results in fast moving blast waves. At the front of the waves shown above, ionized gas in the Veil Supernova Remnant rushes out from the explosion, sweeps up material, and breaks up many atoms into constituent ions and electrons. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993 indicate that the blue shock wave was catapult away from the stellar explosion after the red shock wave and has yet to catch up to it in some regions.
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