Hubble Captures the Aftermath of a Cosmic Cataclysm

Hubble Space Telescope image of an object known as DEM L249, the tattered remnant of a supernova. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Y. Chu

The tattered remnant of a supernova — a titanic explosion marking the end of the life of a dying star — is shown in this image from the white dwarf. While white dwarfs are usually stable, they can slowly accrue matter if they are part of a binary star system. This accretion of matter continues until the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the