Supernova Remnant Puppis
A
From NASA’s Astronomy
Picture of the Day
Driven by the explosion of
a massive star, supernova remnant Puppis A is blasting into the surrounding
interstellar medium about 7,000 light-years away.
At that distance, this
remarkable false-color exploration of its complex expansion is about
180 light-years wide. It is based on the most complete X-ray data set so far
from the Chandra and XMM/Newton observations, and infrared data from the
Spitzer Space Telescope.
In blue hues, the
filamentary X-ray glow is from gas heated by the supernova's shock wave, while the
infrared emission shown in red and green is from warm dust.
The bright pastel tones
trace the regions where shocked gas and warmed dust mingle. Light from the
initial supernova itself, triggered by the collapse of the massive star's core, would have
reached Earth about 3,700 years ago, though the Puppis A supernova remnant
remains a strong source in the X-ray sky.
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/IAFE/ G. Dubner et al., ESA/XMM-Newton
Infrared: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/ R. Arendt et al.
