Chandra Release - June 2, 2004

Visual Description: W49B

A beautiful, complex image of supernova remnant W49B was captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Palomar infrared telescopes. The image features a bright blue and green nebula in the center, surrounded by stars and wispy material. It reveals a barrel-shaped nebula consisting of bright infrared rings around a glowing bar of intense X-radiation along the axis.The X-rays in the bar are produced by 15 million degree Celsius gas that is rich in iron and nickel ions. At the ends of the barrel, the X-ray emission flares out to make a hot cap. The X-ray cap is surrounded by a flattened cloud of hydrogen molecules detected in the infrared. These features indicate that jets of hot gas produced in the supernova have encountered a large, dense cloud of gas and dust.