The dying remains of an
exploded star have been resurrected in a new three-dimensional film that flies
through the ancient supernova.
At center stage in
the new movie is Cassiopeia A, a dead star that exploded about 330 years
ago to forge one of the youngest supernova graves in the Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers used
observations from several ground- and space-based telescopes to build the 3-D voyage
through the supernova, which starts at the remnant's neutron star core. The movie
then pulls back to reveal the wispy, gaseous remains of
Cassiopeia A in hues of red, green, yellow and blue to mark materials seen
in different wavelengths.
"We have always wanted
to know how the pieces we see in two dimensions fit together with each other in
real life," said Tracey Delaney of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, whose team reconstructed the event. "Now we can see for
ourselves with this 'hologram' of supernova debris."
The movie and a separate
study on the same supernova remnant were announced this week at the 213th
meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif.
In the separate study,
astronomers collected a series of time-lapse images of Cassiopeia A's recent evolution using
eight years of observations from the Chandra
X-Ray Observatory. That study found that 30 percent of the supernova's
energy ended up as high-speed cosmic rays.
And by virtually flying
through the
supernova remnant, scientists discovered two separate components: a
spherical outer shell and a flat, disk-like inner layer. Jets of silicon and
iron were spotted in the inner disk, but scientists were surprised to see their
broad, disk-like structure, researchers said. The finding suggests that the
innermost layers of an exploding star erupt as high-speed plumes, while the
outermost regions expand like a spherical bubble.
"With Chandra, we have
watched Cas A over a relatively small amount of its life, but so far the show
has been amazing," said astronomer Daniel Patnaude of the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. "And, we can use this to
learn more about the aftermath of the star's explosion."
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