I read a post on Google+ referencing an article about a supernova remnant. I looked at the picture, and as it happens, let my mind and imagination have a flight of fancy. Again. In a post comment, most of which I've brought up here, too.
The entire thing does look spherical, but the sphere is broken up, and its gravity—or that of the centre of the sphere—keeps the remnant elements around it.
I could posit, that it's simply a dwarf star or dwarf remnant of a star, apparently containing that shrapnel of silicon, as the title suggests.
As I looked closer, the silicon is right in the middle of the sphere, so this could either be what's left of the star's core, _or_ that surviving core is inside and in the middle of a surviving planet that moved in to take the former place of what's left of the old star. In the latter case — if it begins to gather new matter, then it will develop into a new star. A stellar renewal of sorts.
If it's a surviving planet, then a question becomes about whether it moved in, or was it pulled into the center—to the position of (around) the remnant core. It looks, like other spheres are also close, which suggests, that they have been pulled in, too.
An evolved star before nova contains concentric shells of silicon, so the silicon simply manifests the inner (surviving?) parts of the shell post-nova.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Evolved_star_fusion_shells.svg
The silicon remnant might rejuvenate.
If its gravity remains greater than that of any surviving panets, it will catch a planet with enough size, enough elements, and a sufficiently strong rotating core. Or one or more planets that each carry one such component, or a combination of those.
My best guess is a gas giant, because, for example, movements of Jupiter's atmosphere are not dissimilar to movements in the Sun's atmosphere. All that differs, is the behaviour of elements because of differing parameters involving gravity and pressure, but general movements do not diverge all that much.
If post-nova, the remnant's gravity is lesser than that of the surviving planet with the greatest gravity, then eventually, these two will merge, and the solar system will reconstitute around the new body.
The trick is to find a matching planet to nest in. If my description is ever found to be accurate, then we're seeing a stellar hatchling.
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As it is, a supernova usually destroys everything. I suppose, mini-novae can also happen, which might then allow for the stellar rejuvenation described above.
Antoher possibility is, that mini nova happened in another—perhaps neighboring or nearby solar system, and that system's nova wiped out much of its sibling's (or siblings'..) planets and it star. We might simply be looking at the remains of that surviving solar system, which might be trying to rebuild after the catastrophe.
So, a more powerful nova in the distance, or a mini- or micronova right there. The destruction must anyway be survivable enough to allow such processes to move forward.
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(Unless I got the scale wrong, and the spherical remnant is many light-years in size. But what I see, sure looks what I've desribed above.)