Ancient
observers saw the brightest supernova ever recorded on Earth one thousand years
ago, now seen in a combined image by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and three
other telescopes.
The
supernova originated from a white dwarf star that fed on mass from a companion
star, and eventually grew unstable and exploded. Heavy elements such as iron
within the star were freed by the explosion and flung out into the interstellar
void.
The
blue in this image represents X-ray data from Chandra, yellow indicates optical
data from the Curtis Schmidt telescope, orange and light blue show more optical
data from the Digitized Sky Survey, and red signals radio data from the Very
Large Array and Green Bank Telescope.
— NASA and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: X-ray:
NASA/CXC/Rutgers/G.Cassam-Chenaï, J.Hughes et al.; Radio:
NRAO/AUI/NSF/GBT/VLA/Dyer, Maddalena & Cornwell; Optical: Middlebury
College/F.Winkler, NOAO/AURA/NSF/CTIO Schmidt & DSS
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