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Four Supernova Remnants: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory Celebrates 15th Anniversary

  • To celebrate Chandra's 15th anniversary, four newly processed images of supernova remnants have been released.

  • The Tycho and G292.0+1.8 supernova remnants show expanding debris from an exploded star and the associated shock waves.

  • The images of the Crab Nebula and 3C58 show how neutron stars produced by a supernova can create clouds of high-energy particles.

In commemoration of the 15th anniversary of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, four newly processed images of supernova remnants dramatically illustrate Chandra's unique ability to explore high-energy processes in the cosmos (see the accompanying press release).

The images of the Tycho and G292.0+1.8 supernova remnants show how Chandra can trace the expanding debris of an exploded star and the associated shock waves that rumble through interstellar space at speeds of millions of miles per hour. The images of the Crab Nebula and 3C58 show how extremely dense, rapidly rotating neutron stars produced when a massive star explodes can create clouds of high-energy particles light years across that glow brightly in X-rays.

tycho

Tycho:
More than four centuries after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe first observed the supernova that bears his name, the supernova remnant it created is now a bright source of X-rays. The supersonic expansion of the exploded star produced a shock wave moving outward into the surrounding interstellar gas, and another, reverse shock wave moving back into the expanding stellar debris. This Chandra image of Tycho reveals the dynamics of the explosion in exquisite detail. The outer shock has produced a rapidly moving shell of extremely high-energy electrons (blue), and the reverse shock has heated the expanding debris to millions of degrees (red and green). There is evidence from the Chandra data that these shock waves may be responsible for some of the cosmic rays - ultra-energetic particles - that pervade the Galaxy and constantly bombard the Earth.

g292

G292.0+1.8:
At a distance of about 20,000 light years, G292.0+1.8 is one of only three supernova remnants in the Milky Way known to contain large amounts of oxygen. These oxygen-rich supernovas are of great interest to astronomers because they are one of the primary sources of the heavy elements (that is, everything other than hydrogen and helium) necessary to form planets and people. The X-ray image from Chandra shows a rapidly expanding, intricately structured, debris field that contains, along with oxygen (yellow and orange), other elements such as magnesium (green) and silicon and sulfur (blue) that were forged in the star before it exploded.

crab nebula

The Crab Nebula:
In 1054 AD, Chinese astronomers and others around the world noticed a new bright object in the sky. This “new star” was, in fact, the supernova explosion that created what is now called the Crab Nebula. At the center of the Crab Nebula is an extremely dense, rapidly rotating neutron star left behind by the explosion. The neutron star, also known as a pulsar, is spewing out a blizzard of high-energy particles, producing the expanding X-ray nebula seen by Chandra. In this new image, lower-energy X-rays from Chandra are red, medium energy X-rays are green, and the highest-energy X-rays are blue.

3c58

3C58:
3C58 is the remnant of a supernova observed in the year 1181 AD by Chinese and Japanese astronomers. This new Chandra image shows the center of 3C58, which contains a rapidly spinning neutron star surrounded by a thick ring, or torus, of X-ray emission. The pulsar also has produced jets of X-rays blasting away from it to both the left and right, and extending trillions of miles. These jets are responsible for creating the elaborate web of loops and swirls revealed in the X-ray data. These features, similar to those found in the Crab, are evidence that 3C58 and others like it are capable of generating both swarms of high-energy particles and powerful magnetic fields. In this image, low, medium, and high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra are red, green, and blue respectively.

Fast Facts for 3C58:
Credit  NASA/CXC/SAO
Release Date  July 22, 2014
Scale  Image is 12 arcmin across (35 light years) across.
Category  Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries, Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 02h 05m 37.00s | Dec +64 49 48.00
Constellation  Cassiopeia
Observation Dates  4 pointings between Sep 2000 and Apr 2003
Observation Time  108 hours 52 min (4 days 12 hours 52 min)
Obs. IDs  728, 3832, 4382, 4383
Instrument  ACIS
Color Code  X-ray (Red=0.5-1.2 keV, Green=1.2-2.0 keV, Blue=2.0-7.0 keV)
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 10,000 light years
distance arrow
Fast Facts for Crab Nebula:
Credit  NASA/CXC/SAO
Release Date  July 22, 2014
Scale  Image is 4.6 arcmin across (8.7 light years) across.
Category  Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries, Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 05h 34m 32s | Dec +22 0.0 52.00
Constellation  Taurus
Observation Dates  48 pointings between March 2000 and Nov 2013
Observation Time  25 hours 28 min (1 day 1 hour 28 min)
Obs. IDs  769-773, 1994-2001, 4607, 13139, 13146, 13147, 13150-13154, 13204-13210, 13750-13752, 13754-13757, 14416, 14458, 14678-14682, 14685, 16245, 16257, 16357, 16358
Instrument  ACIS
Also Known As NGC 1952
Color Code  X-ray (Red=0.5-1.2 keV, Green=1.2-2.0 keV, Blue=2.0-7.0 keV)
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 6,500 light years
distance arrow
Fast Facts for Tycho's Supernova Remnant:
Credit  NASA/CXC/SAO
Release Date  July 22, 2014
Scale  Image is 9.5 arcmin across (36 light years) across.
Category  Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries, Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 00h 25m 17s | Dec +64 08 37
Constellation  Cassiopeia
Observation Dates  13 pointings between Sep 2000 and May 2009
Observation Time  297 hours 26 min (12 days 9 hours 26 min)
Obs. IDs  115, 3837, 7639, 8551, 10093-10097, 10902-10906
Instrument  ACIS
Also Known As G120.1+01.4, SN 1572
Color Code  X-ray (Red=0.95-1.26 keV, Green=1.63-2.26 keV, Blue=4.1-6.1 keV) Instrument: ACIS
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 13,000 light years
distance arrow
Fast Facts for G292.0+1.8:
Credit  NASA/CXC/SAO
Release Date  July 22, 2014
Scale  Image is 11.4 arcmin across (about 66 light years) across.
Category  Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries, Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 11h 24m 36.00s | Dec -59 16 00.00
Constellation  Centaurus
Observation Dates  6 pointings between 13 Sep and 16 Oct 2006
Observation Time  141 hours 30 min (5 days 21 hours 30 min)
Obs. IDs  6677-6680, 8221, 8447
Instrument  ACIS
Color Code  X-ray (Red=0.58-0.95 keV, Orange=0.98-1.1 keV, Green=1.28-1.43 keV, Blue=1.81-2.62 keV)
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 20,000 light years
distance arrow
Visitor Comments (5)


It is wonderful to see those photos.

Posted by walter pereda on Sunday, 03.18.18 @ 07:27am


Is it possible so see the raw images from Chandra? The colorless x-ray images.

Posted by Tanner Patton on Monday, 12.1.14 @ 20:47pm


Hi Kevin, The blue image being X-ray energies suggests that we could previously see these jets in Radio frequencies, probably through synchrotron radiation from electrons, we now in the X-ray window see evidence of processes with much higher energies, in Direct and reflected Shock waves.

Posted by George Barnes on Wednesday, 08.6.14 @ 20:30pm


It's a privilege to see these - thank you.

Posted by Ann on Wednesday, 07.30.14 @ 01:36am


In The Crab Nebula image, is that really the jet that appears to come out towards the left and down what looks like a whirlpool that swirls around the spinning neutron star? I didn't think that that kind of process was visible except in radio astronomy imaging from 2 billion light-year away quasars.

Posted by Kevin Hassan on Friday, 07.25.14 @ 12:05pm


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