Elements in the Aftermath
Explanation:
Massive stars
spend their brief
lives furiously burning nuclear fuel.
Through fusion
at extreme temperatures and densities surrounding the
stellar core, nuclei of light elements
like Hydrogen
and Helium are combined to heavier
elements like
Carbon, Oxygen, etc. in
a progression which ends with Iron.
And so a
supernova explosion,
a massive star's inevitable and spectacular demise,
blasts back into space debris
enriched in
heavier elements to be incorporated into other stars and planets (and
people!).
This detailed
false-color x-ray image
from the orbiting Chandra
Observatory shows such a hot, expanding stellar
debris
cloud about 36 light-years across.
Cataloged as G292.0+1.8, this young supernova remnant
in the southern constellation
Centaurus resulted from
a massive star which exploded an estimated 1,600 years ago.
Bluish colors highlight filaments of the mulitmillion degree gas
which are exceptionally
rich in Oxygen, Neon, and Magnesium.
Just below and left of center, a point like object in the Chandra image
suggests that
the
enriching supernova also produced a pulsar in
its aftermath, a rotating neutron star remnant of the collapsed stellar
core.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
