Chandra Release - April 20, 2004

Visual Description: SNR 0540-69.3

The Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the supernova remnant SNR 0540-69.3 features a celestial object that results from the explosion of a star. The image primarily consists of shades of blue, green, and purple, with golden yellow on a black background.  The colors look lit up and the textures are soft yet bright. The main structure of the supernova remnant appears as a large, wavy blob with a tiny bright white bell-shaped feature at the very core. The image of SNR 0540-69.3 clearly shows two aspects of the enormous power released when its massive star exploded. An implosion crushed material into an extremely dense (10 miles in diameter) neutron star, triggering an explosion that sent a shock wave rumbling through space at speeds in excess of 5 million miles per hour. The image reveals the central intense white blaze of high-energy particles about 3 light years across created by the rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar. Surrounding the white blaze is a shell of hot gas 40 light years in diameter that marks the outward progress of the supernova shock wave.