Chandra & XMM-Newton Image: Detailed X-ray view of Puppis A supernova

The destructive results of a powerful supernova explosion reveal themselves in a delicate tapestry of X-ray light, as seen in this image from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton.

Image credit: NASA /CXC /IAFE /G.Dubner et al & ESA /XMM-Newton

The image shows the remains of a supernova that would have been witnessed on Earth about 3,700 years ago.

The remnant is called Puppis A, and is around 7,000 light years away and about 10 light years across.

This image provides the most complete and detailed X-ray view of Puppis A ever obtained, made by combining a mosaic of different Chandra and XMM-Newton observations.

Low-energy X-rays are shown in red, medium-energy X-rays are in green and high energy X-rays are coloured blue.

These observations act as a probe of the gas surrounding Puppis A, known as the interstellar medium.

The complex appearance of the remnant shows that Puppis A is expanding into an interstellar medium that probably has a knotty structure.

ESA XMM-Newton

Supernova explosions forge the heavy elements that can provide the raw material from which future generations of stars and planets will form.

Studying how supernova remnants expand into the galaxy and interact with other material provides critical clues into our own origins.

A paper describing these results was published in the July 2013 issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is available online.

The first author is Gloria Dubner from the Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio in Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Puppis A: Supernova remnant seen in Two LIghts

Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/IAFE

The destructive results of a mighty supernova explosion reveal themselves in a delicate blend of infrared and X-ray light, as seen in this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton.

The bubbly cloud is an irregular shock wave, generated by a supernova that would have been witnessed on Earth 3,700 years ago.

The remnant itself, called Puppis A, is around 7,000 light-years away, and the shock wave is about 10 light-years across.

The pastel hues in this image reveal that the infrared and X-ray structures trace each other closely.

Warm dust particles are responsible for most of the infrared light wavelengths, assigned red and green colours in this view.

Material heated by the supernova’s shock wave emits X-rays, which are colored blue.

Regions where the infrared and X-ray emissions blend together take on brighter, more pastel tones.

The shock wave appears to light up as it slams into surrounding clouds of dust and gas that fill the interstellar space in this region.

From the infrared glow, astronomers have found a total quantity of dust in the region equal to about a quarter of the mass of our sun.

Data collected from Spitzer’s infrared spectrograph reveal how the shock wave is breaking apart the fragile dust grains that fill the surrounding space.

Supernova explosions forge the heavy elements that can provide the raw material from which future generations of stars and planets will form.

Studying how supernova remnants expand into the galaxy and interact with other material provides critical clues into our own origins.

Infrared data from Spitzer’s multiband imaging photometer (MIPS) at wavelengths of 24 and 70 microns are rendered in green and red.

X-ray data from XMM-Newton spanning an energy range of 0.3 to 8 kiloelectron volts are shown in blue.