Hubble Highlights Incredible Image of a Supernova Remnant

Hubble Highlights Incredible Image of a Supernova Remnant
Hubble Highlights Incredible Image of a Supernova Remnant (Enhanced Image by Judy Schmidt (CC BY-NC-SA) based on images provided courtesy of NASA/CXC/SAO & NASA/STScI)

The Hubble revisited a beautiful image of a bright supernova remnant captured by the telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

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Over two decades, Chandra has recorded hundreds of thousands of X-ray sources throughout the universe, archiving this data for public access one year after observations. Professional astronomers, amateurs, and space enthusiasts explore these archives, resulting in discoveries of new objects, investigations into intriguing phenomena, and the creation of impressive visual compositions.

In the case of this highlighted image, the composition was created using X-ray data from Chandra and optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope, depicting a supernova remnant. A star, 15 times more massive than our Sun, exploded, leaving behind this stunning cosmic view.

Officially named N132D, this supernova remnant also stands out for belonging to a rare class with relatively high levels of oxygen. According to NASA, scientists believe that most of the oxygen we breathe came from explosions similar to this one.

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