Sh2-240, The Spaghetti Nebula, Taurus

A well-named supernova remnant that dramatically demonstrates the violence of the explosion that caused it. The massive star is believed to have exploded about 40,000 yr ago according to the current measured rate of expansion, has left behind a fast-spinning neutron star and would have been an impressively bright object in the sky, at night or during the day, even at its estimated distance of around 3,000 ly. It lies in a rich field of stars including b Tauri (El Nath) which contains other faint, and not so faint, emission nebulae amongst the so-called galactic cirrus that pervades this region. It is a relatively difficult object to image well from the latitudes of southern Australia as it never rises favourably high into the sky.