Chandra Release - May 23, 2018

Visual Description: E0102-72.3

E0102-72 is a supernova remnant, which is an object that forms from the explosion of a massive star. The image features a blue and purple nebula in the center with pops of red, light green, and gold, surrounded by numerous bright red stars. The cloudy nebula appears to be shaped like a wheel with spokes missing, or a target with a red bull's eye. In this image, X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are blue and purple, and visible light data from VLT's Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument are bright red. Additional data from the Hubble Space Telescope are dark red and green. Seen a few thousand years after the original explosion, oxygen-rich remnants contain the debris ejected from the dead star's interior. This debris (shown as a green filamentary structure in the image) is observed today hurtling through space after being expelled at millions of miles per hour. Chandra observations of E0102 show that the supernova remnant is dominated by a large ring-shaped structure in X-rays, associated with the blast wave of the supernova. MUSE data revealed a smaller ring of gas (in bright red) that is expanding more slowly than the blast wave. At the center of the small ring is a blue point-like source of X-rays.