Star's corpse shines bright in X-rays
Puppis A supernova remnant in X-ray light (Source: NASA/CXC/IAFE/G.Dubner et al & ESA/XMM-Newton)
StarStuff photo of the week This image is the most detailed X-ray view ever taken of the supernova remnant known as Puppis A, which is located about 7000 light years away.
The blast that produced the remnant would have been visible on Earth 3700 years ago.
Puppis A is about 10-light-years wide and contains ejecta moving at speeds of over 1500 kilometres per second.
At the centre of the remnant is what's thought to be a pulsar, a spinning neutron star, which is the super dense core of the original star that exploded.
The different colours in this delicate tapestry represent different levels of X-ray energy, with low levels shown in red, medium readings in green, and high energy photons in blue.
Supernova explosions forge the heavy elements that provide the raw materials from which future generations of stars and planets will form.
These elements are being blasted into the surrounding space known as the interstellar medium.
Astronomers believe the turbulent appearance of the remnant indicates Puppis A is expanding into a part of the interstellar medium that has a knotty structure.
By studying how these heavy elements interact with other material in the interstellar medium, scientists get new clues about our own origins.
The image was made by combining a mosaic of different observations from both the Chandra and XMM-Newton Earth orbiting space telescopes.
Hosted by Stuart Gary, StarStuff takes us on a weekly journey across the universe. StarStuff reports on the latest news and discoveries in science, with a special focus on astronomy, space sciences and cosmology.
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