Chandra Release - April 26, 2011

Visual Description: Tycho's Supernova Remnant

This is a Chandra X-ray image that features Tycho's supernova remnant. The main colors in the image are blue, purple and golden-green, with a circular shape dominating the image on a background of black.  The structure of the supernova remnant can be seen clearly in the X-ray image, revealing intricate details with knots and finger-like shapes seemingly coming out of the nebula, and some towards the viewer. There is a bright blue circle around the perimeter from high energy X-rays, which comes from a shell of extremely energetic electrons in the explosion’s blast wave. Low and medium energy X-rays in red and green show expanding debris from the supernova explosion. Also shown in the lower left region of Tycho, around 8 o’clock, is a striking blue arc of X-ray emission. Several lines of evidence support the conclusion that this arc is due to a shock wave created when a white dwarf exploded and blew material off the surface of a nearby companion star.