The purple haze of a dying star: Colourful image captures phenomenon lighting up the atmosphere

Nasa released the picture of the bright purple remnant W44, which was created by combining data from the European Space Agency's Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories, the Daily Mail reports.

Nasa said on their website: 'W44 is the vast purple sphere that dominates the left hand side of this image, and measures about 100 light-years across.

'XMM-Newton data reveal that the remnant is filled with X-ray emission from extremely hot gas.

'Herschel's three-colour infrared view comprises PACS 70 and 160 micron and SPIRE 250 micron images.

'X-ray data from XMM-Newton's EPIC instrument for W44 only has been added in light and dark blue to represent high- (2–8 keV) and low-energy (1.2–2 keV) X-ray emission, respectively.

'The field of view is about one degree across.

'North is towards the bottom left of the image; east is to the top right.'
The last breaths of W44, which is about 10,000 light-years away, happened in the dense star-forming clouds of the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle, Science Daily reported.

A supernova occurs when a star with masses far greater than that of the Sun dies because it burns out the last traces of its nuclear fuel.

Firstly it collapses because it cannot maintain it structure as gravity's pressure from inside is too much.
It becomes unstable and violently explodes, causing a burst of radiation.
As it collapse, its outer layers are sweep through space, swooping up interstellar material the surrounds it.
All that is left is the collapsed remains of a neutron star.