Clocking a Supernova
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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
· Hubble Space Telescope visible-light image of SN 0519: NASA/ESA/STScI
· Hubble and Chandra X-ray Observatory composite images of SN 0519. X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/B. J. Williams et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI
· Hubble and Chandra X-ray Observatory composite image of SN 0519. X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/B. J. Williams et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI
Writer: Leah Ramsay
Designer: Leah Hustak
Science review: Dr. Kelly Lepo
Education review: Jim Manning
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Images of galaxies, nebulae, planets, and stars in space.
Text, News From The Universe.
Clocking A Supernova. September 16, 2022.
A supernova explosion. A cloud of red in front of stars and space.
Text, Astronomers have used multi-mission data to turn back time and begin tracing the date of a supernova explosion.
The cloud is dense and stars shine through it.
Text, Hubble Space Telescope images from 2010, 2011, and 2020 showed the speeds of material in the blast wave.
At its fastest, the light of the supernova explosion would have reached Earth about 670 years ago.
However, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows that the blast wave has crashed into dense gas, causing it to slow down.
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A trail of purple appears over the center of the red supernova.
The purple turns to green.
Text, The brightest regions in X-rays are where the slowest-moving material is located.
The green trail slowly turns a white/green.
Text, No X-rays are detected with the fastest-moving material.
This means that the supernova occurred more recently than 670 years ago.
This news was brought to you in part by the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, MA.