NASA rocket mission to study how supernovas form galaxies

NASA is launching a mission to understand life cycles of stars, galaxies
The mission will collect data from a supernova in the constellation Cygnus
The rocket will lift off from New Mexico Sunday

Updated: Oct 28, 2023 / 06:22 PM CDT

The NASA logo is displayed at the Earth Information Center exhibit, at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 21, 2023. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

(NewsNation) — NASA is launching a mission to study a star’s death and how it lays the groundwork for the formation of a new galaxy more than 2,600 light years away from Earth.

Scientists are honing in on the constellation Cygnus, where a once massive star, estimated to be 20 times the size of our sin, exploded in a brilliant supernova.

Although the blast happened 20,000 years ago, star matter from the explosion is still fanning out at 930,000 miles every hour. It is now thought to be 120 light years across.

“Supernovae like the one that created the Cygnus Loop have a huge impact on how galaxies form,” said Brian Fleming, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and principal investigator for the INFUSE mission.

The INFUSE mission, short for Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Experiment, will lift off from New Mexico Sunday at 11:35 p.m. ET. The rocket is expected to gather light’s wavelengths as the supernova’s energy crashes into cold pockets of gas in outer space.

Astronomers refer to the supernova as the Cygnus Loop, which is in the constellation Cygnus. Scientists believe the data will tell them where specific elements lie along the loop and help them better understand the life cycles of stars and galaxies.