                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2026 July 2
    Against a bright field of stars, a yellow nebula with blue details, a
         purple filament on the left and a bright star on the right.

                         Sibling Supernova Remnants
    Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et
        al. 2026; optical: DSS; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA;
                           ultraviolet: NASA/Swift
             Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

   Explanation: What happens when one of the stars in a binary goes
   supernova? This image combines visible (yellow), ultraviolet (purple)
   and infrared light (cyan, red and orange) to show two supernova
   remnants and their surrounding environment, about 6,000 light-years
   away. The younger one is the well-known Jellyfish Nebula in the center
   (mostly in yellow). If we could see it by eye, it would appear larger
   than the full moon in the sky. The filament shown in purple is part of
   an older, overlapping supernova remnant, G189.6+3.3. A new study used
   data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to piece together
   their story. Astronomers believe that there were two stars in a binary
   system, then the first one exploded as a supernova, kicking away its
   companion, which also exploded as a supernova tens of thousands of
   years later, creating the superimposed supernova remnants we see today.
   The bright star on the right is actually a triple star system named
   Propus.

                      Tomorrow's picture: What's next?
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

