Humans Watched This Supernova Explode Nearly a Millennium Ago. Now You Can See It in High Definition

Previous images of the explosion’s remnants had also captured a sphere of long, filament-like strands of matter that collectively resemble fireworks or a dandelion. The new observations, made with the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, revealed about 10 times more structures than any previous glimpses of the supernova remnant. With this resolution, researchers can now see that these filaments are not continuous as they had previously appeared. Instead, they’re shaped more like beads on a string, made up of pearl-like…