Gaseous Relic of Titanic Explosion
This Hubble Space Telescope portrait reveals the gaseous remains of an exploded massive star that erupted approximately 1,700 years ago.
The stellar corpse, a supernova remnant named 1E 0102.2-7219, met its demise in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
The image shows ribbons of gaseous clumps speeding away from the explosion site at an average speed of 2 million miles per hour. At that velocity you could travel to the Moon and back in 15 minutes.
This color-composite image was assembled from separate exposures through red, green, and blue filters, which capture the glow of ionized oxygen.
Because the gaseous knots are moving at different speeds and directions from the supernova explosion, those moving toward Earth are colored blue in this composition and the ones moving away are red.
Researchers plumbed the Hubble archive for visible-light images of the supernova remnant. They analyzed the data to calculate a more accurate estimate of the age and center of the supernova blast.
The Small Magellanic Cloud, located roughly 200,000 light-years away, is visible in the southern hemisphere.
This image is a blend of exposures taken in 2014 by the Wide Field Camera 3.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, STScI, John Banovetz (Purdue University), Danny Milisavljevic (Purdue University)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | SNR 1E 0102.2-7219 |
| Object Description | Supernova remnant |
| R.A. Position | 01:04:01.2 |
| Dec. Position | -72:01:52 |
| Constellation | Tucana |
| Distance | The object lies roughly 200,000 light-years away from Earth. |
| Dimensions | Image is approximately 1.4 arcminutes across (84 light-years) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from program (D. Milisavljevic) |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | 13-14 May 2014 |
| Filters | F467M; FQ492N; F502N; F657N; F665N; FQ508N; F673N |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/UVIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F467M+FQ492N Green: F502N+F657N Yellow: F665N Red: FQ508N; F673N |
| Compass Image |  |
| 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. |
