Chandra Is Autoreblog - Blog Posts

#SupernovaSunday

Supernovae are stellar explosions that are so powerful they briefly outshine entire galaxies, radiating as much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span

The Universe is so vast that it is estimated that a star explodes every second. In a galaxy the size of our Milky Way, a star will go supernova every 50 years on average.

A star can go supernova in one of two ways: 

Type I supernova: star accumulates matter from a nearby neighbor until a runaway nuclear reaction ignites. 

Type II supernova: star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity.

Supernovae play a key role in distributing elements throughout the universe. When the star explodes, it shoots elements and debris into space. Many of the elements we find here on Earth, including life, are made in the core of stars. These elements travel on to form new stars, planets and everything else in the universe.

Supernovae as seen by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Crab Nebula | Cassiopeia A  | Tycho’s Supernova Remnant  | G292.0+1.8

The Whirlpool Galaxy - Sparkling with X-Rays

Nearly a million seconds of observing time with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way glittering with hundreds of X-ray points of light.

This galaxy’s official name is Messier 51 (M51) or NGC 5194, but it  often goes by its nickname of the “Whirlpool Galaxy.” Like the Milky Way, the Whirlpool is a spiral galaxy with spectacular arms of stars and dust. M51 is located about 30 million light years from Earth, and its face-on orientation to Earth gives us a perspective that we can never get of our own spiral galactic home.

By using Chandra, astronomers can peer into the Whirlpool to uncover things that can only be detected in X-rays. In this new composite image, Chandra data are shown in purple. Optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are red, green, and blue.

Credit: NASA/Hubble/Chandra/Harvard