What Happened
NASA’s IXPE observed the outer rim of the supernova remnant highlighted in purple in the inset.
Why It Matters
Data from IXPE is combined with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton.
Key Details
- The yellow represents low-energy X-rays, while blue shows high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra and XMM-Newton.
- The starfield in the image comes from the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOILab).NASA/ X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, XMM: ESA/XMM-NEWTON, IXPE: NASA/MSFC; Optical: NSF/NOIRLab; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.
- NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have observed.
- When astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory previously targeted RCW 86, they discovered that a large “cavity” region around the system led the supernova to expand more rapidly than expected.
Background Context
NASA’s IXPE observed the outer rim of the supernova remnant highlighted in purple in the inset. Data from IXPE is combined with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. The yellow represents low-energy X-rays, while blue shows high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra and XMM-Newton. The starfield in the image comes from the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOILab).NASA/ X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, XMM: ESA/XMM-NEWTON, IXPE: NASA/MSFC; Optical: NSF/NOIRLab; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping fill
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Source: NASA – Original Link
Source: NASA
