Video Credit: NASA
When Multiple POVs Mix
Reply
Tag Archives: XMM-Newton
The Oldest Known Supernova
This image combines data from four space telescopes to create a multi-wavelength view of all that remains of RCW 86, the oldest documented example of a supernova. Chinese astronomers witnessed the event in A. D. 185, recording a “guest star” that remained in the sky for eight months. X-ray images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton Observatory were combined to form the blue and green colors in the image. The X-rays show the interstellar gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by the passage of the shock wave from the supernova. Infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and WISE, Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, shown in yellow and red, reveal dust radiating at a temperature of several hundred degrees below zero, warm by comparison to normal dust in our Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers were able to determine from the X-ray and Infrared data that the cause of the explosion was a Type Ia supernova. In a Type 1a supernova an otherwise-stable white dwarf or dead star is pushed beyond the brink of stability when a companion star dumps material onto it.
Scientists also used the data to solve another mystery surrounding the remnant: how it got to be so large in such a short amount of time. By blowing away wind prior to exploding, the white dwarf was able to clear out a huge cavity, a region of very low-density surrounding the system. The explosion into this cavity was able to expand much faster than it otherwise would have. This is the first time that this type of cavity has been verified around a white dwarf system prior to explosion. Scientists say the results may have significant implications for theories of white-dwarf binary systems and Type Ia supernovae.
RCW 86 is approximately 8,000 light-years away. At about 85 light-years in diameter, it occupies a region of the sky in the southern constellation of Circinus that covers slightly more of the sky than the full moon.
Image Credit: NASA/ESA
Abell 2256
Video Credit: NASA
The First Recorded Supernova
This image combines data from four space telescopes to create a multi-wavelength view of all that remains of RCW 86, the oldest documented example of a supernova. Chinese astronomers witnessed the event in A. D. 185, recording a “guest star” that remained in the sky for eight months. X-ray images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton Observatory were combined to form the blue and green colors in the image. The X-rays show the interstellar gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by the passage of the shock wave from the supernova. Infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and WISE, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, shown in yellow and red, reveal dust radiating at a temperature of several hundred degrees below zero, warm by comparison to normal dust in our Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers were able to determine from the X-ray and Infrared data that the cause of the explosion was a Type 1a supernova. In a Type 1a supernova an otherwise-stable white dwarf or dead star is pushed beyond the brink of stability when a companion star dumps material onto it.
Scientists also used the data to solve another mystery surrounding the remnant: how it got to be so large in such a short amount of time. By blowing away wind prior to exploding, the white dwarf was able to clear out a huge cavity, a region of very low-density surrounding the system. The explosion into this cavity was able to expand much faster than it otherwise would have. This is the first time that this type of cavity has been verified around a white dwarf system prior to explosion. Scientists say the results may have significant implications for theories of white-dwarf binary systems and Type Ia supernovae.
RCW 86 is approximately 8,000 light-years away. At about 85 light-years in diameter, it occupies a region of the sky in the southern constellation of Circinus that covers slightly more of the sky than the full moon.
Image Credit: NASA / ESA
Sagittarius A* at the Center of Our Galaxy
A black hole called Sagittarius A* (pronounced A-star) lies at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, only 27,000 light-years away. Its mass is roughly 4 million times the mass of the Sun. Our galaxy’s black hole is mild-mannered compared to the central black holes in some other galaxies, much more calmly consuming material around it. However, it does sometimes flare-up. An flareup lasting several hours is documented in this series of X-ray images from the orbiting Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). NuSTAR is the first instrument to provide focused views of the area surrounding Sgr A* at X-ray energies higher than those accessible to the Chandra and XMM observatories. The flare sequence is shown in the panels on the right. The images cover a two-day span. X-rays are generated in material heated to over 100 million C and traveling at nearly the speed of light as it falls into the black hole. The center X-ray image spans about 100 light-years. Its bright white region is the hottest material closest to the black hole; the pinkish cloud probably belongs to the remnant of a nearby supernova. Click the picture to embiggen it.
Sgr A* is monitored on a daily basis by the X-ray telescope of the Swift satellite. I made contributions to the design of the power and thermal control systems of the Burst Alert Telescope instrument on Swift.
Image Credit: NASA
Mergers and Acquisitions
Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity. They can contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies held together in vast clouds of multi-million-degree gas glowing in X-rays.
The system known as Abell 2384 is the result of the collision of a pair galaxy cluster hundreds of millions of years ago. This composite image was put together using x-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton (blue) and radio data from the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India (red). It shows the superheated bridge of gas running through Abell 2384 and reveals the effects of a jet from a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy in one of the clusters. The jet is so powerful that it bends the shape of the 3 million light-year long gas bridge which has the mass of about 6 trillion Suns.
Image Credit: NASA
20 Years of XMM-Newton
Video Credit: NASA
An X-Ray View of the Universe
ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite produced this map of x-ray sources. Its shows the 30 000 sources in the 84% of the sky it covers. The plot is color-coded. Lower energy x-ray sources are red, and higher energy sources are blue. The brighter the source, the larger it appears on the map.
Image Credit: ESA
HD 5980
Video Credit: ESA
The Heart of the Crab
Here’s NASA’s description of this video—
This video starts with a composite image of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant that was assembled by combining data from five telescopes spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum: the Very Large Array, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, the XMM-Newton Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The video dissolves to the red-colored radio-light view that shows how a neutron star’s fierce “wind” of charged particles from the central neutron star energized the nebula, causing it to emit the radio waves. The yellow-colored infrared image includes the glow of dust particles absorbing ultraviolet and visible light. The green-colored Hubble visible-light image offers a very sharp view of hot filamentary structures that permeate this nebula. The blue-colored ultraviolet image and the purple-colored X-ray image shows the effect of an energetic cloud of electrons driven by a rapidly rotating neutron star at the center of the nebula.
Video Credit: NASA, ESA, J. DePasquale (STScI)
Mapping Black Holes
Video Credit: NASA
Cygnus OB2 #9
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w08Ueu8HJ5U]
Video Credit: NASA
UPDATE: Broken link fixed.