This colorful creation was made by combining data from two of NASA's Great Observatories. Optical data of SNR 0509-67.5 and its accompanying star field, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, are composited with X-ray images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The result shows soft green and blue hues of heated material from the X-ray data surrounded by the glowing pink optical shell, which shows the ambient gas being shocked by the expanding blast wave from the supernova. Ripples in the shell's appearance coincide with brighter areas of the X-ray data.
The Type Ia supernova that resulted in the creation of SNR 0509-67.5 occurred nearly 400 years ago for Earth viewers. The supernova remnant and its progenitor star reside in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small galaxy about 160,000 light-years from Earth. The bubble-shaped shroud of gas is 23 light-years across and is expanding at more than 11 million miles per hour (5,000 kilometers per second).
Data from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, taken in 2006 with a filter that isolates light from glowing hydrogen, were combined with visible-light images of the surrounding star field that were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in 2010. These data were then merged with X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory taken with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) in 2000 and 2007.
Credits
NASA, ESA, CXC, SAO, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and J. Hughes (Rutgers University)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | SNR 0509 |
| Object Description | Supernova Remnant |
| R.A. Position | 05h 9m 31.69s |
| Dec. Position | -67° 31' 18.0" |
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Distance | 160,000 light-years (50,000 parsecs) |
| Dimensions | This image is 1.2 arcminutes (58 light-years or 18 parsecs) wide. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposals : J. Hughes, J. Warren, and L. Hovey (Rutgers University), C. Badenes (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), C. Smith (NOAO/CTIO), J. Vink (Space Research Organization, Netherlands), and P. Ghavamian (STScI); and : K. Noll, Z. Levay, M. Livio, H. Bond, C. Christian, L. Frattare, M. Mutchler, and T. Borders (Hubble Heritage Team/STScI). |
| Instrument | CXO>ACIS, HST>WFC3/IR and HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | 2000 and 2007 (CXO), October 28, 2006, and November 4, 2010 (HST) |
| Filters | HST: F475W (g), F555W (V), F658N (H-alpha+[N II]), and F814W (I) CXO: ACIS |
| 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. |
