Chandra Discovers Relativistic Pinball Machine
chandra_337 November 15th, 2006
Credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/UMass Amherst/M.D.Stage et al.
New analysis of an extraordinarily deep Chandra image of Cassiopeia A shows that this supernova remnant accelerates electrons to enormous energies. The blue, wispy arcs reveal the acceleration is taking place in an expanding shock wave generated by the explosion that destroyed the progenitor star. This acceleration is close to the theoretical limit and provides strong evidence that supernova remnants are key sites for generating cosmic rays, mysterious high-energy particles that bombard the Earth.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/casa/
Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
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Image Details
Distance
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- 337
- Subject Category
- B.4.1.4
- Subject Name
- Cas A, Cassiopeia A
- Credits
- NASA/CXC/MIT/UMass Amherst/M.D.Stage et al.
- Release Date
- 2006-11-15
- Lightyears
- 11,000
- Redshift
- 11,000
- Reference Url
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/casa/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Chandra, Chandra, Chandra
- Instrument
- ACIS, ACIS, ACIS
- Color Assignment
- Red, Green, Blue
- Band
- X-ray, X-ray, X-ray
- Bandpass
- Low X-ray, Medium X-ray, High X-ray
- Central Wavelength
- 1.24, 0.62, 0.25
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- 2000.0
- Reference Value
- 3.5091843664599E+02, 5.8840324072004E+01
- Reference Dimension
- 2700, 2354
- Reference Pixel
- 811.1095, 1694.799
- Scale
- -4.48469137624E-05, 4.70263395577E-05
- Rotation
- 0.00000000
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
- URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu
- Name
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
- Telephone
- 617.496.7941
- Address
- 60 Garden St.
- City
- Cambridge
- State/Province
- MA
- Postal Code
- 02138
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
- Publisher
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- Publisher ID
- chandra
- Resource ID
- casa.tif
- Resource URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/casa/casa.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2012-07-09
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
