In your eyes, there’s a heavy blue. The wispy blue swirls of the Cygnus Loop nebula are the result of a massive stellar explosion that occurred 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. However, the shockwave from this explosion is still spreading out through space. Supernova remnants like this nebula play an important role in stellar evolution, enriching space with heavy elements and spurring the formation of new stars by compressing stellar gas. The gas and dust visible here in an ultraviolet (UV) image from our Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) were heated by the shockwave from the supernova. GALEX was an orbiting space telescope that made observations at UV wavelengths to measure the history of stars forming in the universe—nearly all the way back to the Big Bang. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech #space #NASA #supernova #nebula #stars #astronomy