This region is filled with hot gas that has been ionised by the intense ultraviolet radiation from embedded young massive stars.вЂќ вЂњAt the top right of the expanding shell, there is a smaller cavity, with the shock from the supernova remnant impacting the bight arc-shaped feature. вЂњAt the cooler edge of the cavity, gas is swept up as the supernova remnant propagates through space.вЂќ Dense knots of high-energy emission reflect regions where heavier elements are more commonly found.вЂќ вЂњThe centre of the supernova remnant is also bright in X-rays, coming from the hot gas that fills the shell, at temperatures of several million degrees. вЂњIt is thought to be around 20,000 years old and as it rapidly rotates it sweeps out a wind of highly energetic particles and beams of light ranging from radio to X-ray energies.вЂќ The pulsar, PSR B1853+01, is the very bright point in the image, located to the top left, and colored light blue in this picture. вЂњThe product of a massive star that has already reached the end of its life and expelled its outer layers in a dramatic explosion, all that remains of the stellar behemoth is the spinning core of a neutron star, or pulsar.вЂќ ItвЂ™s currently one of the few places where researchers can clearly observe a supernova remnant interacting with its parent molecular cloud.

W44 is located about 10,000 light-years away from us, inside of a вЂforestвЂ™ of very dense star-forming clouds in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle. This image of the supernova remnant, W44, is a composite image made from far-infrared and X-ray data. The enormous aftershock of a stellar explosion moving through space was recently imaged by the ESAвЂ™s Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories.

Supernova quasar