N63A: A supernova remnant 160,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Caption: Chandra's image (blue) of N63A has been combined with optical (green) and radio (red) images to make this composite image. The X-rays show material heated to about ten million degrees Celsius by a shock wave generated by the supernova explosion. The central region of the remnant is bright in optical and radio light because the supernova shock wave is engulfing a massive cloud of dust and gas. Collisions such as this are thought to trigger the formation of a new generation of stars. The fluffy crescent-shaped X-ray features that appear around the edge of the remnant are thought to be fragments of high-speed matter shot out from the star when it exploded, like shrapnel from a bomb.
Scale: Image is 112 arcsec per side
Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image
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