N132D and the Color of X Rays
Explanation:
Supernova remnant N132D shows off complex structures in
this
sharp, color x-ray image.
Still, overall this
cosmic debris from a massive
star's explosive death has a strikingly simple horseshoe shape.
While N132D
lies 180,000 light-years distant in the
Large Magellanic Cloud,
the
expanding remnant
appears here about 80 light-years across.
Light from the
supernova blast which created it would have reached
planet Earth about 3,000 years ago.
Observed by the orbiting
Chandra
Observatory, N132D still glows in
x-rays, its
shocked gas heated
to millions of degrees
Celsius.
Since
x-rays are invisible,
the Chandra x-ray image data are represented
in this picture by
assigning visible
colors to
x-rays with
different energies.
Low energy x-rays are shown as red, medium energy as green, and
high energy as blue colors.
These color choices make a pleasing picture and they also
show the x-rays in the same
energy order as
visible light
photons, which range
from low to high energies as red, green, and blue.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
