image: This is a three-color composite image of the young supernova (SN) remnant Cassiopeia A. The areas bright in red, green, and blue are where iron (Fe), sulfur (S), and oxygen (O) are abundant, respectively. These heavy elements are the main products of nucleosynthesis in SN. A substantial amount of phosphorus (P) has been detected in these SN materials. Red = Near-infrared [Fe II] (1.64 micron) image obtained by the 5-m Palomar Hale telescope. Green = F850LP image of the Hubble Space Telescope. Blue = F775W image of the Hubble Space Telescope. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the 13 Dec., 2013, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by B.-C. Koo at the University College London in London, UK, and colleagues was titled, "Phosphorus in the Young Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A." view more
Credit: [Credit: Near-infrared: B.-C. Koo, Y.-H. Lee (SNU), D.-S. Moon (UT/CalTech) <i>et al</i>.; X-ray: J.-J. Lee (KASI), CXC, NASA]