Chandra

Cassiopeia A, observed August 19, 1999

“Cassiopeia A is the 320-year old remnant of a massive star that exploded. Located on the constellation Cassiopeia, it is 10,000 light years from Earth. The X-ray image shows an expanding shell of hot gas produced by the explosion. The gaseous shell is about 10 light years in diameter, and has a temperature of about 50 million degrees.”

from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory

One light year is the distance light travels in a year: 10 trillion kilometers.
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory was launched by NASA July 23, 1999.
It is named for Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995),
Nobel Laureate in Physics.
Chandra means “moon” or “luminous” in Sanskrit.

N132D, observed September 1, 1999

“N132D is the remnant of an exploded star in the large Magellanic Cloud. The Chandra images show a highly-structured remnant, or shell, of 10-million degree gas that is 80 light years across. The remnant is thought to be about 3,000 years old. The Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way, is 180,000 light years from Earth. In this image, which is like a photographic ‘negative,’ the X-ray emission is brightest where the image is darkest. This representation shows up some of the best details.”

-from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory

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