Chandra Release - May 21, 2008

Visual Description: SN 2008D

The X-ray image of the supernova SN 2008D features four bright multicolored dots in a black sky, arranged in a loose trapezoid shape. The Chandra X-ray Observatory image was obtained about 10 days after the supernova explosion occurred. The lowest energy X-rays are shown in red, intermediate energy X-rays in green and high energies in blue. The faint red source in the upper right is SN 2008D and marked with a label. The other 3 X-ray sources are unrelated to this supernova.  The labelled source was observed as a very bright X-ray outburst in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, located 90 million light-years from Earth. This outburst marked the very early stages of a supernova explosion called SN 2008D.