Zooming into the Vela Supernova Remnant

With the powerful, 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, astronomers have constructed a massive 1.3 gigapixel image showcasing the central part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the cosmic corpse of a gigantic star that exploded as a supernova 11,000 years ago. DECam is one of the highest-performing wide-field imaging instruments in the world and is mounted on the US National Science Foundation's Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.