The Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) is a supernova remnant located approximately 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. This intricate cloud of expanding gas was created when a massive star exploded thousands of years ago. The glowing filaments visible in the nebula trace the shock waves from that explosion as they interact with surrounding interstellar material. Narrowband imaging reveals complex structures within the expanding shell, highlighting the turbulent aftermath of one of the galaxy’s most powerful events.
This image shows the complex filamentary structure of IC 443, a supernova remnant located in Gemini. The data was processed in the SHO narrowband palette and later refined to reduce the cinematic colour effect, resulting in darker nebular structures, brighter white stars, and more subtle colour tones.
The tangled filaments mark the expanding shockwave of a long-dead star colliding with surrounding molecular clouds.
