Detailed knots and filamentary ribbons of glowing gas are apparent in this Hubble Space Telescope image of Kepler's supernova remnant. This image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in August 2003. Filters onboard Hubble isolate visible light emitted by hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in the remnant and also let through starlight from foreground and background stars.
These images reveal where the supernova shock wave is slamming into dense regions of nearby gas. The bright glowing knots are dense clumps that form behind the outward moving shock wave. As the shock ploughs into material lost from the progenitor star after the initial supernova explosion, instabilities left in its wake cause the swept-up gas to fragment into clumps. The Hubble data also show thin filaments of gas. These filaments reveal where the shock wave is encountering lower-density, more uniform interstellar material.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);Acknowledgment: R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins University)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Kepler's Supernova Remnant, SN 1604, V 843 Ophiuchi, G004.5+06.8 |
| Object Description | Supernova Remnant |
| R.A. Position | 17h 30m 40.79s |
| Dec. Position | -21° 29' 11.0" |
| Constellation | Ophiuchus |
| Distance | 13,000 light-years (4,000 parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from Hubble observations from proposal : R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins Univ.), L. Rudnick (U. Minnesota), T. DeLaney (U. Minnesota and Harvard-Smithsonian/Center for Astrophysics), I. Harrus (Goddard Space Flight Center). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | August 28-29, 2003 and May 26, 2004v, Exposure Time: 23,509 seconds (6.5 hours) |
| Filters | F502N ([O III]), F550M (V), F658N (Halpha+[N II]), F660N ([N II]), and F673N ([S II]) |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
