Sh2-240 / Simeis 147 — Pastafarians’ Delight

Sh2-240 / Simeis 147 — Pastafarians’ Delight

Sh2-240, also known as Simeis 147 and the Spaghetti Nebula, is a huge, faint supernova remnant straddling the Taurus/Auriga region of the sky. It spans roughly 3 degrees across — several full Moons wide — but its surface brightness is extremely low, which makes it a difficult object to capture and process well.

This remnant is the expanding debris from a star that ended its life in a supernova tens of thousands of years ago. What remains is a tangled web of shock-heated filaments, with hydrogen and sulfur forming much of the warmer amber structure, while oxygen adds the cooler blue-green shock regions. A pulsar, PSR J0538+2817, is also associated with the remnant, the compact leftover core from the original stellar explosion.

For this version, I processed the data in a narrowband palette built from H-alpha, SII, and OIII, then brought the stars back in lightly so the delicate shell could remain the focus. The goal was not to turn the field into a star showcase, but to let the faint fossil-like structure of the remnant come forward — amber strands, blue shock fronts, and all the chaotic “noodly appendages” that give this object its nickname.

The title, Pastafarians’ Delight, is a small nod to the Spaghetti Nebula’s more playful side. After all, if the Flying Spaghetti Monster left a signature in the sky, it might look something like this.