NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory Reveals a Sublime Supernova

This supernova remnant is what’s left of a star that was 15 times the mass of the Sun.

BY
DORIS ELÍN URRUTIA
JUNE 23, 2023



A ring of material contrasts against the background stars and galaxies that are peppered behind it. ...
NASA/Chandra


Tucked away in a small galaxy that whips around the Milky Way, there shines an especially bright remnant of a supernova.

The quest to learn more about how the universe works often yields stunning and majestic imagery. When astronomers directed NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory towards a nearby place called the Large Magellanic Cloud, they beheld the brightest supernova in any satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Stars grow and die. When they reach the end, they erupt in a grand finale that disperses the heavy elements necessary for the universe to look the way it does today. Astronomers often peer into the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that looks like a smudge in the southern sky, to learn about this epic final phase of stellar life.

Link to tweet

The star that collapsed to form this glorious object, called N132D, was about 15 times bigger than the Sun, according to a NASA Chandra tweet published on Thursday. And though the large star is now gone, its supernova remnant is not an idle grave.

More:
https://www.inverse.com/science/chandra-x-ray-observatory-studies-bright-supernova-remnant-nearby