Tour of Kepler's Supernova Remnant
Quicktime

• High Res (30.7 MB)
• Low Res (10.5 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (9.2 MB)
• Low Res (7.2 MB)

This image of Kepler's supernova remnant shows the expanding ball of debris from a supernova explosion in our galaxy. The supernova itself was seen in 1604 by Johannes Kepler and others. The different colors in the Chandra X-ray data show different energies in the supernova remnant, and optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey shows stars in the field. The Kepler supernova was the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf. New analysis suggests that the supernova explosion was not only more powerful, but might have also occurred at a greater distance, than previously thought.
[Runtime: 00:43]

(Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)