Contact: Megan Watzke
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
617-496-7998
Chandra X-ray Center

Supernova Remnant and its Light Echo

Caption: A panoramic view of the Large Magellanic Cloud shows the location of the supernova remnant 0509-67.5 and a light echo that was generated when the massive progenitor star exploded. Chandra's image (upper right) shows the circular shape of the remnant detected in X-ray light. Optical data from ground-based telescopes show this light echo (lower right) traveling through space. This result marks the first time researchers combined two separate methods to estimate the energy of a supernova explosion.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers Optical: NOAO/AURA/NSF

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