Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.Borkowski et al.); Optical (DSS)

A new Chandra observation is providing important details about the most recent supernova known to have exploded in the Milky Way. The explosion would have been visible from Earth a little more than a hundred years ago if it had not been heavily obscured by dust and gas. G1.9+0.3 was most likely created when a white dwarf star underwent a thermonuclear detonation and was destroyed - either after merging with another white dwarf or by pulling too much material from an orbiting companion star. The Chandra data show that most of the X-ray emission is "synchrotron radiation," produced by extremely energetic electrons accelerated in the rapidly expanding blast wave of the supernova. The new X-ray study also reveals that the explosion that created G1.9+0.3 was asymmetrical and unusually energetic.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/g19/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html