N132D: supernova remnant in constellation Dorado (optical view) 1/09/1999
Click to return to main N132D page N132D is the remnant of an exploded star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Chandra image shows 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.

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Image Credit: J. Morse/CTIO.  
N132D is the remnant of an exploded star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Chandra image shows 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. The optical image shows gas that has a temperature of a few tens of thousands of degrees, much lower than the 10 million degree X-ray emitting gas. The similarity of the two images is striking, but a detailed examination shows important differences. The optical shell is not as complete, and some of the clumps in the interior are known to have high concentrations of the element oxygen. These are believed to have been ejected in the explosion, which must have occurred about 3,000 years ago.  
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