Description: This deep Chandra X-ray Observatory image shows the supernova remnant Kes 75, located almost 20,000 light years away. The explosion of a massive star created the supernova remnant, along with a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star. The low energy X-rays are colored red in this image and the high energy X-rays are colored blue. The pulsar is the bright spot near the center of the image. The rapid rotation and strong magnetic field of the pulsar have generated a wind of energetic matter and antimatter particles that rush out at near the speed of light. This pulsar wind has created a large, magnetized bubble of high-energy particles called a pulsar wind nebulae, seen as the blue region surrounding the pulsar. The magnetic field of the pulsar in Kes 75 is thought to be more powerful than most pulsars, but less powerful than magnetars, a class of neutron star with the most powerful magnetic fields known in the Universe. Scientists are seeking to understand the relationship between these two classes of object.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: 2008

Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/m16/

Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Gift line: Credit: NASA/CXC/GSFC/F.P.Gavrii