Chandra Release - March 15, 2013

Visual Description: G306.3-0.9

The X-ray image of the supernova remnant G306.3-0.9 features a very small, bright purple object in the center of a dark and starry sky. The purple nebula has some bits of red and blue peaking through. It has a cartoon-like fish shape, poised as if swimming down into the water.  It stands out from the surrounding stars due to its colors, brightness and contrast against the darker background. This composite of supernova remnant G306.3-0.9 merges Chandra X-ray observations (colored in blue), infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (red and cyan) and radio observations (purple) from the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The image is 20 arcminutes across, which corresponds to 150 light-years at the remnant's estimated distance.