Fireworks in the Sky
Depicts: Cassiopeia A
Copyright: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
The light from the exploding star reached Earth 320 years ago. The dead star's shredded remains are called Cassiopeia A, or "Cas A" for short. Cas A is the youngest known supernova remnant in our Milky Way Galaxy and resides 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, so the star actually blew up 10,000 years before the light reached Earth in the late 1600s.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
