Chandra Release - October 26, 2011

Visual Description: RCW 86

This is an X-ray and infrared image of a supernova remnant named RCW 86, which appears to be two mismatched halves of a broken circle. The colors in the image are predominantly blue, green, and red with a sprinkling of gold. The texture of RCW 86 resembles that of nebulous and patchy fingers and swirls of gas. This image combines data from four different space telescopes to create this multi-wavelength view of the remains of an exploded star. It is one of the oldest documented examples of a supernova. The Chinese witnessed the event in 185 A.D., documenting a mysterious "guest star" that remained in the sky for eight months. X-ray images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory are combined to form the blue and green colors in the image. The X-rays show the interstellar gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by the passage of the shock wave from the supernova. Infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, as well as NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) are shown in yellow and red, and reveal dust radiating at a temperature of several hundred degrees below zero, warm by comparison to normal dust in our Milky Way galaxy.