|
|
Kepler's Supernova Remnant:
NASA's Great Observatories Provide a Detailed View of Kepler's Supernova Remnant
NASA's three Great Observatories -- the Hubble Space Telescope, the
Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory -- joined
forces to probe the expanding remains of a supernova. Now known as Kepler's
supernova remnant, this object was first seen 400 years ago by sky watchers, including
famous astronomer Johannes Kepler.
The combined image unveils a bubble-shaped shroud of gas and dust that
is 14 light years wide and is expanding at 4 million miles per hour
(2,000 kilometers per second). Observations from each telescope highlight distinct features of the supernova remnant, a fast-moving shell of iron-rich material from the
exploded star, surrounded by an expanding shock wave that is sweeping up
interstellar gas and dust.
Each color in this image represents a different region of the
electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to infrared light. These diverse
colors are shown in the panel of photographs below the composite image.
The X-ray and infrared data cannot be seen with the human eye. By
color-coding those data and combining them with Hubble's visible-light
view, astronomers are presenting a more complete picture of the
supernova remnant.
Visible-light images from the Hubble telescope (colored yellow) reveal where the supernova shock wave is slamming into the densest regions of surrounding gas.
The bright glowing knots are dense clumps from instabilities that form
behind the shock wave. The Hubble data also show thin filaments of gas
that look like rippled sheets seen edge-on. These filaments reveal where
the shock wave is encountering lower-density, more uniform interstellar
material.
The Spitzer telescope shows microscopic dust particles (colored red)
that have been heated by the supernova shock wave. The dust re-radiates
the shock wave's energy as infrared light. The Spitzer data are
brightest in the regions surrounding those seen in detail by the Hubble
telescope.
The Chandra X-ray data show regions of very hot gas, and extremely high
energy particles.
The hottest gas (higher-energy X-rays, colored blue)
is located primarily in the regions directly behind the shock front.
These regions also show up in the Hubble observations, and also align
with the faint rim of glowing material seen in the Spitzer data.
The X-rays from the region on the lower left (blue) may be dominated by
extremely high energy electrons that were produced by the shock wave and
are radiating at radio through X-ray wavelengths as they spiral in the
intensified magnetic field behind the shock front. Cooler X-ray gas
(lower-energy X-rays, colored green) resides in a thick interior shell
and marks the location of heated material expelled from the exploded star.
The remnant of Kepler's supernova, the last such object seen to explode
in our Milky Way galaxy (with the possible exception of the Cassiopeia A
supernova, for which ambiguous sightings were reported around 1680), is
located about 13,000 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.
The Chandra observations were taken in June 2000, the Hubble in August 2003, and the Spitzer in August 2004.
| Fast Facts for Kepler's Supernova Remnant:
|
|
Credit
|
NASA/ESA/JHU/R.Sankrit & W.Blair |
|
Scale
|
Main image is 5 arcmin across |
|
Category
|
Supernovas & Supernova Remnants |
|
Coordinates
(J2000)
|
RA 17h 30m 40.80s | Dec -21º
29' 11.00" |
|
Constellation
|
Ophiuchus |
|
Chandra Observation
Date
|
June 30, 2000 |
|
Chandra Observation
Time
|
14 hours |
|
Chandra Obs.
ID
|
116 |
|
Color
Code
|
Energy (X-ray: Blue = 4-6 keV, Green= 0.3-1.4 keV; Optical: Yellow; Infrared: Red) |
|
Chandra Instrument
|
ACIS
|
|
Distance Estimate
|
13,000 light years |
| Also Known As |
SN 1604, G004.5+06.8, V 843 Ophiuchi |
| Release
Date |
October 6, 2004 |
|
|
|
