Chandra Release - September 22, 2005

Visual Description: Tycho's Supernova Remnant

The Chandra X-ray Observatory image of Tycho's Supernova Remnant depicts a glowing, multi-colored sphere that appears to be suspended in the blackness of space. This spherical structure is actually a remnant of a massive explosion that occurred over 400 years ago, when the star underwent a catastrophic event known as a supernova. The appearance of the remnant has a slightly rainbow-like appearance, with bright blue, green, orange, yellow and purple hues dominating the image. The texture of the remnant can be described as somewhat mottled or uneven, with areas of varying brightness and contrast throughout the sphere, like bits of material are jumping out towards the viewer.  Chandra's image of this supernova remnant shows an expanding bubble of multimillion degree debris (green and red clumps) inside a more rapidly moving shell of extremely high energy electrons (a bright filamentary blue around the perimeter of the image).  The supersonic expansion (about six million miles per hour) of the stellar debris has created two X-ray emitting shock waves - one moving outward into the interstellar gas, and another moving back into the debris. These shock waves produce sudden, large changes in pressure and temperature, like an extreme version of sonic booms produced by the supersonic motion of airplanes.