Viral: Nasa posts picture of 300-year-old supernova remnant

Team Udayavani, Aug 3, 2021, 12:56 PM IST

Source: NASA

NASA, in an Instagram post, shared the image of a 300-year-old remnant formed by the supernova explosion of a huge star located 11,000 light-years away from the Earth.

According to NASA, a supernova or explosion of a star is the largest explosion that takes place in space

A supernova or explosion of a star is the largest explosion that takes place in space, according to the space agency’s website.

Calling it a kaleidoscope of color, NASA wrote, “Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is shown in its full glory in this composite of images taken by three of our great observatories. This 300-year-old remnant created by the supernova explosion of a massive star is located about 11,000 light-years away from Earth.”

 

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The post further explained that the different colors in the image provide different details captured by each observatory, giving astronomers a holistic view of Cas A.

According to NASA, ” Red – Infrared data from Spitzer Space Telescope reveals warm dust in the outer shell with temperatures of about 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit),” and the yellow is optical data from Nasa’s Hubble Telescope and it shows “a delicate filamentary structure” of warm gases at “about 10,000 degrees celsius.”

The blue and green are X-ray data from Nasa’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and it displays gases at about 10 million degrees celsius. “This hot gas was likely created when ejected material from the supernova smashed into surrounding gas and dust at speeds of about 10 million miles per hour,” wrote NASA.