Cas A: Chandra maps vital elements in supernova | 19/08/1999 | ||
![]() |
The red, green, and blue regions in this Chandra X-ray image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A show where the intensity of low, medium, and high energy X rays, respectively, is greatest. The red material on the left outer edge is enriched in iron, whereas the bright greenish white region on the lower left is enriched in silicon and sulfur. | ||
Go to full text | |||
![]() |
|||
![]() |
|||
Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO, Rutgers, J.Hughes. | |||
|
|||
The
red, green, and blue regions in this Chandra X-ray image of the supernova
remnant Cassiopeia A show where the intensity of low, medium, and high energy
X rays, respectively, is greatest. The red material on the left outer edge
is enriched in iron, whereas the bright greenish white region on the lower
left is enriched in silicon and sulfur. In the blue region on the right
edge, low and medium energy X rays have been filtered out by a cloud of
dust and gas in the remnant.
An X-ray image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), the remnant of an exploded star, reveals gaseous clumps of silicon, sulfur, and iron expelled from deep in the interior of the star. The most compact and brightest knots were composed mostly of silicon and sulfur, with little or no iron. This pointed to an origin deep in the star's interior where the temperatures had reached three billion degrees during the collapse and resulting supernova. Elsewhere, fainter features were found that contained significant amounts of iron as well as some silicon and sulfur. This material was produced even deeper in the star, where the temperatures during the explosion had reached higher values of four to five billion degrees. |
![]() |
When comparisons were made of where the compact silicon-rich knots and fainter iron-rich features were located in Cas A, it was discovered that the iron-rich features from deepest in the star were near the outer edge of the remnant. This meant that they had been flung the furthest by the explosion that created Cas A. Even now this material appears to be streaming away from the site of the explosion with greater speed than the rest of the remnant. | |
Return to top of page |