Chandra Release - December 11, 2000

Visual Description: IC 443

The Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the supernova remnant IC 443 is a fascinating visual representation of an exploding star. The image features a black background with bright green-blue blobs of light scattered across it. This is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred tens of thousands of years ago. In the center of the image, there is a white spot that stands out from the surrounding green-blue blobs. This white spot represents the location of the supernova explosion, where the intense heat and pressure caused by the explosion created a dense, compact object known as a neutron star. Neutron stars are some of the densest objects in the universe, with a mass several times that of the sun packed into an incredibly small space. The comet-shaped appearance of the cloud of high-energy particles in the Chandra image indicates that the neutron star is moving through IC 443. Like the wake of a supersonic airplane, the swept-back shape of the nebula around the neutron star allowed the speed to be measured as it is traveling away from its origin.