July 1, 2008—The remnant of a supernova called SN 1006 hangs like a gumball 7,000 light-years away in a composite image released last Tuesday by NASA.

When it was first seen from Earth more than a thousand years ago, the explosion of the white dwarf star that created SN 1006 was reportedly brighter than Venus in the night sky.

The blast wave from the stellar explosion is still traveling at about 6 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) an hour, heating gases along its path that emit radiation in visible light.

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