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NASA's Great Observatories May Unravel 400-Year Old Supernova MysteryOctober 6, 2004RELEASE: 04-333 Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington Phone: 202-358-1547 Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, CFA, Cambridge, MA Phone: 617-496-7998 cxcpress@cfa.harvard.edu Gay Yee Hill Spitzer Science Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-0344 Donna Weaver Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD Phone: 410-338-4493
Four hundred years ago, sky watchers, including the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, best known as the discoverer of the laws of planetary motion, were startled by the sudden appearance of a "new star" in the western sky, rivaling the brilliance of the nearby planets.
When a new star appeared Oct. 9, 1604, observers could use only their eyes to study it. The telescope would not be invented for another four years. A team of modern astronomers has the combined abilities of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and Chandra X-ray Observatory, to analyze the remains in infrared radiation, visible light, and X-rays. Ravi Sankrit and William Blair of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore lead the team. The combined image unveils a bubble-shaped shroud of gas and dust, 14 light-years wide and expanding at 4 million mph. Observations from each telescope highlight distinct features of the supernova, a fast-moving shell of iron-rich material, surrounded by an expanding shock wave sweeping up interstellar gas and dust.
"For instance, the infrared data are dominated by heated interstellar dust, while optical and X-ray observations sample different temperatures of gas," Blair added. Blair is a research professor, Physics and Astronomy Department at Hopkins and lead astronomer for SST observations. "A range of observations is needed to help us understand the complex relationship that exists among the various components," Blair said. The explosion of a star is a catastrophic event. The blast rips the star apart and unleashes a roughly spherical shock wave that expands outward at more than 22 million mph like an interstellar tsunami. The shock wave spreads out into surrounding space, sweeping up any tenuous interstellar gas and dust into an expanding shell. The stellar ejecta from the explosion initially trail behind the shock wave. It eventually catches up with the inner edge of the shell and is heated to X-ray temperatures.
There have been six known supernovas in our Milky Way over the past 1,000 years. Kepler's is the only one, which astronomers do not know what type of star exploded. By combining information from all three Great Observatories, astronomers may find the clues they need. "It's really a situation where the total is greater than the sum of the parts," Blair said. "When the analysis is complete, we will be able to answer several questions about this enigmatic object." Information and images from this research is available on the Web at:
http://www.nasa.gov
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/29/ http://chandra.harvard.edu and http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/ [Press Index] [Press Releases] [Supernovas & Supernova Remnants] |
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Revised: September 06, 2006
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