Chandra Release — June 24, 2021

Visual Description: MSH 15-52 

Today's release features a primary image of a hand-shaped nebula of particles and energy, seemingly reaching up to touch the remnants of an exploded star. The hand-shaped nebula resembles the back of a ghostly left-hand glove in swirling blues and greens. It has a distinct thumb, and a clear index and middle finger, but the ring finger is vaguely defined, and the pinky is only implied by a stump.


The nebula's fingertips reach up into a brick-red cloud speckled with clusters of bright orange and yellow dots with white cores. This is the supernova remnant MSH 15-52 colliding with a wall of surrounding gas. Inset in this primary image, and presented in separated annotated images, is a short time-lapse video of the supernova remnant.


The 4-second time-lapse is presented in shades of blue instead of reds and oranges, and features visualizations of three data sets; the first from 2004, the second from 2008, and the third from 2018. As the three images play in sequence, the cloud of blue shifts slightly as if being blown by a breeze from our lower left. The luminosity of the bright blue dots within the cloud also appears to change, but their movements are not readily apparent. Only after studying the annotated images are those movements clear.


In the annotated images, several fixed red squares are superimposed over various dots and cloud patches. These areas feature clumps of magnesium and neon that were shot into space when the star exploded. When the 2004, 2008, and 2018 images are compared, one after the other, subtle but clear movement of that magnesium and neon is discernible within those fixed red squares. Using this Chandra data, scientists now estimate that some debris within this blast wave is moving at almost 9 million miles per hour, and some might be traveling faster than 11 million miles per hour.