Supernova remnant: NASA explores the Small Magellanic Cloud

NASA. LARGE FORMAT. DEEP SPACE. Superb remnant of an exploded star in a nearby galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud. The galaxy lies some 190,000 light-years from Earth. We can therefore see the remnant as it was some 190,000 years ago, some 1,000 years after the explosion.
The star exploded at a speed in excess of 20 million kilometers per hour (12 million mph) and collided with the surrounding gas. This collision produced two shock waves, or cosmic sonic booms, one propagating outwards and the other bouncing back into the matter ejected by the explosion.
The radio image was produced using the compact array of the Australian telescope. The radio waves are caused by high-energy electrons spiralling around the magnetic field lines in the gas, tracing the outward-moving shock wave.
The NASA telescope's X-ray image, shown in blue, shows gas that has been heated to millions of degrees Celsius by the bouncing, or inverted, shock wave. X-ray data show that this gas is rich in oxygen and neon. These elements were created by nuclear reactions inside the star and projected into space by the supernova.
The optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows dense clusters of oxygen gas that have "cooled" to around 30,000 degrees Celsius.
Images like these, taken with different types of telescopes, give astronomers a much more complete picture of supernova explosions. They can map how the elements necessary for life are dispersed, and measure the energy of matter as it expands across the galaxy. 2000.
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