SNR 0103-72.6: Chandra Finds Rich Oxygen Supply inside Glowing Ring (A supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy about 190,000 light years from Earth.)

SNR 0103-72.6: Chandra Finds Rich Oxygen Supply inside Glowing Ring (A supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy about 190,000 light years from Earth.)

Description: Chandra's image shows a striking, nearly perfect ring about 150 light years in diameter surrounding a cloud of gas rich in oxygen and shock-heated to millions of degrees Celsius. The ring marks the outer limits of a shock wave produced as material ejected in the supernova explosion plows into interstellar gas. The size of the ring indicates that we see the supernova remnant as it was about 10,000 years after its progenitor star exploded. Oxygen is synthesized by nuclear reactions in the interiors of stars at least ten time as massive as the Sun. When such a star explodes, its core collapses to form either a neutron star, or if massive enough, a black hole, and the oxygen-rich material surrounding the core is propelled into interstellar space. Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray Date: 2003 Persistent URL: http://photography.si.edu/SearchImage.aspx?id=459 Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Collection: Supernovas and Supernova Remnants Collection Gift line: NASA/CXC/PSU/S.Park et al. Accession number: snr0103_comp Image by Smithsonian Institution