Chandra Release - March 16, 2015

Visual Description: GK Persei

The image of the nova GK Persei features a bright blue and pinkish-purple round object in the center of a dark space. The colors are vibrant and eye-catching, and the texture of the explosion resembles that of a fireworks display, with an array of bright, shimmering golden sparks radiating outwards from the center. The sparks appear to be emanating from a central point, creating a symmetrical pattern that is reminiscent of a starburst. This image of GK Persei contains X-rays from Chandra (colored in blue), optical data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (yellow), and radio data from the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (pink). The X-ray data show hot gas and the radio data show emission from electrons that have been accelerated to high energies by the nova shock wave. The optical data reveal clumps of material that were ejected in the explosion. The nature of a large point-like source on the lower left is unknown.  Over the years that the Chandra data span, the nova debris expanded at a speed of about 700,000 miles per hour. This translates to the blast wave moving about 90 billion miles during that period.