Gaping Maw

Via National Geographic, Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE

Looking like an iridescent shark jaw, the supernova remnant IC 443 glows amid an interstellar cloud of dust and gas, as seen in a picture from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, released December 9.

IC 443 is notable for having two distinct halves: a northern shell of sheet-like filaments (pink) and a southern shell of denser clumps and knots (blue). The top half is emitting light from iron, neon, silicon, and oxygen gases. The bottom is primarily emitting light from hydrogen gas.

Studying the odd structure can give scientists insight into how stellar explosions interact with their environments. The scientists think, for example, that the two halves are the result of shock waves that hit the interstellar medium—thin gases that float in the voids between stars—at different speeds.