Image:Rcw86.jpg

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[edit] Summary

Credit: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al. XMM-Newton: ESA/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/rcw86/

Caption:

The combined image from the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories of RCW 86 shows the expanding ring of debris that was created after a massive star in the Milky Way collapsed onto itself and exploded. Both the Chandra and XMM images show low energy X-rays in red, medium energies in green and high energies in blue. The Chandra observations focused on the northeast (left-hand) side of RCW 86, and show that X-ray radiation is produced both by high-energy electrons accelerated in a magnetic field (blue) as well as heat from the blast itself (red).

Properties of the shell in the Chandra image, along with the remnant's size and a basic understanding of how supernovas expand, were used to help determine the age of RCW 86. The new data revealed that RCW 86 was created by a star that exploded about 2,000 years ago. This age matches observations of a new bright star by Chinese astronomers in 185 A.D. (and possibly Romans as well) and may be the oldest known recordings of a supernova. Supernova explosions in galaxies like ours are rare, and none have been recorded in hundreds of years.

Scale: Chandra field of view is 38 arcmin across

Observation date and duration: June 15, 2004 - 20 hours

[edit] Licensing

Image use policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy). Warnings: NASA logos (which include the current "meatball" logo, the old "worm" logo, and the seal) are copyrighted. Materials from the Hubble Space Telescope may be copyrighted if they do not explicitly come from the STScI. [1] All materials created by the SOHO probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use. [2] Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted. [3]

File history

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• (del) (cur) 00:07, 30 January 2007 . . IanOsgood (Talk | contribs) . . 658×592 (323,483 bytes) (Credit: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al. XMM-Newton: ESA/Univ. of Utrecht/J.Vink et al http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/rcw86/ Image use policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html Caption: The combined image from the )

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