Chandra Release - December 10, 2015

Visual Description: IC 443

These astronomical images feature a wide field optical image with an inset of an X-ray view of the supernova remnant Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443). The dominant colors in the main optical image are yellow and orange with a touch of green and blue. The nebula is shaped slightly like a jellyfish, with long tentacles of gas stretching out from its central body.  Swirling tendrils and filamentary structures radiate outward, glowing in golden and amber hues. Their intricate, lace-like pattern gives the nebula a dynamic and ethereal appearance.  The nebula is set against a field of distant stars sprinkled liberally across the canvas.  The graphic also includes a zoomed-in inset (toward the top-right) revealing a closer look at a region combining Chandra X-ray Observatory data (colored in blue) and Digitized Sky Survey optical (red/orange) data. This highlights a compact, high-energy source— the pulsar nebula left behind by the supernova—surrounded by more delicate optical emissions.