|
|
Tycho's Supernova Remnant:
Chandra's View of Tycho's Supernova Remnant
This Chandra image reveals fascinating details of the
turbulent debris created by a supernova explosion that
was observed by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in
the year 1572. The colors show different X-ray
energies, with red, green, and blue representing low,
medium and high energies, respectively. The image is
cut off at the bottom because the southernmost region
of the remnant fell outside the field of view of the
detector.
A shock wave produced by the expanding debris is
outlined by the strikingly sharp blue circular arcs of
twenty million degree Celsius gas seen on the outer
rim. The stellar debris, which has a temperature of
about ten million degrees and is visible only in
X-rays, shows up as mottled yellow, green and red
fingers of gas.
Tycho's supernova remnant presents several interesting
contrasts with the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova
remnant. The debris for Tycho is distributed in clumps
rather than knots as in Cas A, and its outer shock wave
can be seen in smooth and continuous arcs rather than
being fragmented, as in Cas A.
Also, no central point source is detected in Tycho, in
contrast to Cas A. The absence of a central point source is consistent with other
evidence that Tycho is a Type Ia supernova, which
is thought to signal the detonation and destruction of
a white dwarf star. Theory predicts that a white dwarf
star will explode when infalling matter from a
companion star increases the mass of the white dwarf
beyond a critical mass limit, known as the
Chandrasekhar limit.
| Fast Facts for Tycho's
Supernova Remnant: |
|
Credit
|
NASA/CXC/SAO
|
|
Scale
|
Image is 9.6 arcmin
|
|
Category
|
Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
|
|
Coordinates
(J2000)
|
RA 00h 25m 17s | Dec +64º 08'
37"
|
|
Constellation
|
Cassiopeia
|
|
Observation
Date
|
September 20, 2000
|
|
Observation
Time
|
13.4 hours
|
|
Obs.
ID
|
115
|
|
Color
Code
|
Energy: Red .30-.95 keV, Green
.95-2.65 keV, Blue 2.65-7.00 keV
|
|
Instrument
|
ACIS
|
|
Reference
|
U. Hwang et al, astro-ph/0208485
|
| Distance Estimate |
7,500 light years |
|
Also Known
As
|
G120.1+01.4, SN 1572
|
|
Release Date
|
September 06, 2002
|
|
|
|
