Tycho's Supernova Remnant: A supernova remnant in the Milky Way about 13,000 light years
from Earth.
Caption: A long Chandra observation of Tycho has revealed a pattern
of X-ray “stripes” never seen before in a supernova remnant. The
stripes are seen in the high-energy X-rays (blue) that also show the
blast wave, a shell of extremely energetic electrons. Low-energy X-
rays (red) show expanding debris from the supernova explosion. The
stripes, seen to the lower right of this composite image that includes
optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey, may provide the first
direct evidence that a cosmic event can accelerate particles to
energies a hundred times higher than achieved by the most powerful
particle accelerator on Earth.
Scale: Image is
19 arcmin across (about 55 light years)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
ACIS Image
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