Chandra Release - May 7, 2007

Visual Description: Supernova 2006gy

This graphic of Supernova 2006gy features an illustration of this object at the top, a greenish-blue infrared image at lower left and two purple-pink round X-ray sources at lower right. Supernova 2006gy, SN 2006gy, was the brightest and most energetic stellar explosion ever recorded at the time of observation. The top panel artist's illustration shows what SN 2006gy may have looked like if viewed at a close distance. Fireworks-like material in white shows the explosion of an extremely massive star. This debris is pushing back two lobes of cool, red gas that were expelled in a large eruption from the star before it exploded. The green, blue and yellow regions in these lobes show where gas is being heated in a shock front as the explosion material crashes into it and pushes it backwards. Most of the optical light generated by the supernova is thought to come from debris that has been heated by radioactivity, but some likely comes from the shocked gas.  The bottom left panel is an infrared image, using adaptive optics at the Lick Observatory, of NGC 1260, the galaxy containing SN 2006gy. A dimmer source to the lower left in that panel is the center of NGC 1260, while a much brighter source to the upper right is SN 2006gy. The panel to the right shows Chandra's X-ray image of the same field of view, again showing the nucleus of NGC 1260 and SN 2006gy.