Abell 85 — the Garlic Nebula

Abell 85, also known as CTB 1, is a large supernova remnant (SNR) located in the constellation Cassiopeia. The southern portion of the remnant’s bubble also made it into the Lynds Bright Nebula catalog as LBN 576. Originally catalogued by George Abell as a planetary nebula, it soon became evident that it was in fact an SNR.

In 2017, the citizen science project Einstein@Home — which normally analyzes gravitational-wave data from the LIGO detector — identified a pulsar within Abell 85: PSR J0002+6216, now known as the “Cannonball Pulsar.” Travelling at over 1,100 km/s, it’s one of the fastest-moving pulsars known — fast enough to eventually leave the Milky Way entirely — and it trails a radio tail roughly 13 light-years long behind it.

These images were captured during summer at the remote observatory.