NASA'S Chandra Finds New Evidence on Origin of Supernovas
chandra_481 April 26th, 2011
Credit: NASA/CXC/Chinese Academy of Sciences/F. Lu et al
This Chandra image of the Tycho supernova remnant contains new evidence for what triggered the original supernova explosion. Tycho was formed by a Type Ia supernova, a category of stellar explosion used in measuring astronomical distances because of their reliable brightness. In the lower left region of Tycho is a blue arc of X-ray emission. Several lines of evidence support the conclusion that this arc is due to a shock wave created when a white dwarf exploded and blew material off the surface of a nearby companion star. This supports one popular scenario for the trigger of a Type Ia supernova. Understanding the origin of Type Ia supernovas is important because they have been used to determine that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/tycho2/
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
- 481
- Subject Category
- B.4.1.4 B.3.1.9 B.3
- Subject Name
- Tycho's Supernova Remnant
- Credits
- NASA/CXC/Chinese Academy of Sciences/F. Lu et al
- Release Date
- 2011-04-26
- Lightyears
- 13,000
- Redshift
- 13,000
- Reference Url
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/tycho2/
- 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
- X-ray, X-ray, X-ray
- Central Wavelength
- 0.66, 0.52, 0.25
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 6.3356728, 64.1385494
- Reference Dimension
- 3600.0, 2844.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1801.0, 1423.0
- Scale
- 8.81608e-05, 8.8160833e-05
- Rotation
- 0.12
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
- 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 Center
- Publisher ID
- chandra
- Resource ID
- tycho2.tif
- Resource URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/tycho2/tycho2.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2013-09-20T09:47:28-04:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
