An overview of the Chandra mission and goals, Chandra's namesake, top 10 facts.
Classroom activities, printable materials, interactive games & more.
Overview of X-ray Astronomy and X-ray sources: black holes to galaxy clusters.
All Chandra images released to the public listed by date & by category
Current Chandra press releases, status reports, interviews & biographies.
A collection of multimedia, illustrations & animations, a glossary, FAQ & more.
A collection of illustrations, animations and video.
Chandra discoveries in an audio/video format.
Q&A: Supernova Remnants and Neutron Stars
I saw the photo of the remnants of
Cassiopeia A which exploded some 300 years ago (from our frame of reference). How can the gases still be at 50 million degrees? Wouldn't the density of the gas have decreased to a point that the temperature dropped significantly?
It's the low density of the gas in supernova remnants that results in its slow
cooling. Cooling processes like collisions act faster with high density
gas, and slower with low density gas.
