Credit : NASA/CXC/Middlebury College/F.Winkler
This year, astronomers around the world have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of X-ray astronomy. Few objects better illustrate the progress of the field in the past half-century than the supernova remnant known as SN 1006.
When the object we now call SN 1006 first appeared on May 1, 1006 A.D., it was far brighter than Venus and visible during the daytime for weeks. Astronomers in China, Japan, Europe, and the Arab world all documented
this spectacular sight. With the advent of the Space Age in the 1960s,
scientists were able to launch instruments and detectors above Earth's
atmosphere to observe the Universe in wavelengths that are blocked from the ground, including X-rays. SN 1006 was one of the faintest X-ray sources detected by the first generation of X-ray satellites.
A new image of SN 1006 from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals
this supernova remnant in exquisite detail. By overlapping ten different
pointings of Chandra's field-of-view, astronomers have stitched
together a cosmic tapestry of the debris field that was created when a white dwarf star
exploded, sending its material hurtling into space. In this new
Chandra image, low, medium, and higher-energy X-rays are colored red,
green, and blue respectively.
The Chandra image provides new insight into the nature of SN1006, which is the remnant of a so-called Type Ia supernova . This class of supernova
is caused when a white dwarf pulls too much mass from a companion star
and explodes, or when two white dwarfs merge and explode. Understanding
Type Ia supernovas is especially important because astronomers use
observations of these explosions in distant galaxies as mileposts to
mark the expansion of the Universe.
The new SN 1006 image represents the most spatially detailed map yet
of the material ejected during a Type Ia supernova. By examining the
different elements
in the debris field -- such as silicon, oxygen, and magnesium -- the
researchers may be able to piece together how the star looked before it
exploded and the order that the layers of the star were ejected, and
constrain theoretical models for the explosion.
Scientists are also able to study just how fast specific knots of
material are moving away from the original explosion. The fastest knots
are moving outward at almost eleven million miles per hour, while those
in other areas are moving at a more leisurely seven million miles per
hour. SN 1006 is located about 7,000 light years from Earth. The new
Chandra image of SN 1006 contains over 8 days worth of observing time by
the telescope. These results were presented at a meeting of High Energy
Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society in Monterey,
CA.
This work involved Frank Winkler, from Middlebury College in
Middlebury, VT; Satoru Katsuda from The Institute of Physical and
Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Saitama, Japan; Knox Long from Space
Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD; Robert Petre from NASA
-Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD; Stephen Reynolds
from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC; and Brian Williams
from NASA -GSFC in Greenbelt, MD.
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's science and
flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Fast Facts for SN 1006:
Scale : Image is 34 arcmin across (about 70 light years)
Category : Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
Coordinates (J2000) : RA 15h 04m 10.01s | Dec -41º 53' 44.88"
Constellation : Lupus
Observation Date : 24 pointings between July 10, 2000 and June 15, 2012
Observation Time : 248 hours (10 days, 8 hours).
Obs. ID : 732, 1959, 3838, 4385-4394, 9107, 13737-13743, 14423, 14424, 14435
Instrument : ACIS
Also Known As : SNR 327.6+14.6
Color Code : X-ray (Red, Green, Blue)
