Supernova remnant LMC N 49, optical Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image. These clouds of glowing gas and dust are where the explosion of a large star, thousands of years ago, has flung the star's outer layers against the interstellar medium. The impact from this rapid expansion causes the gas and dust to heat up and glow. A neutron star (not visible) formed from the star's core. The expanding dust cloud contains the material needed to form planets around new stars. LMC N 49 is 90 light years wide and 160,000 light years distant in the LMC (Large Magellanic Cloud), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way Galaxy.