Astronomy Picture of the Week – Distant Nebula

This nebula, designated as N 49 or DEM L 190, looks like puffs of smoke or sparks from a fireworks display. It is one of the most distant nebulae ever observed, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. The nebula is the result of a large supernova, whose light should have reached Earth a few thousand years ago. Eventually, new stars will be formed inside the filaments of this huge nebula, or perhaps they already have, but their light has yet to reach us.

Image Credit: NASA.