Chandra Release - August 17, 2016

Visual Description: G11.2-0.3

The X-ray and optical image of the supernova remnant G11.2-0.3 features a colorful, glowing wheel-shaped object in the center of a starry sky. The object is predominantly green, yellow and blue in color, with some brown hues visible in small patches. This image of G11.2-0.3 shows low-energy X-rays in red, the medium range in green, and the high-energy X-rays detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue. The X-ray data have been overlaid on an optical field from the Digitized Sky Survey, showing stars in the foreground.  Although the Chandra image appears to show the remnant has a very circular, symmetrical shape, the details of the data indicate that the gas that the remnant is expanding into is uneven.
The supernova explosion also produced a pulsar - a rapidly rotating neutron star - and a pulsar wind nebula, shown by a small elongated patch of bright blue X-ray emission in the center of the remnant.