![]() ![]() Fesen (Dartmouth College, USA) and James Long (ESA/Hubble)Ĭassiopeia A is the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky at frequencies above 1 GHz. Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. The Hubble image shows the complex and intricate structure of the star’s shattered fragments. It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova event in the Milky Way. Image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at the tattered remains of a supernova known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). In 2011, astronomers discovered that the star was rapidly cooling.Ĭassiopeia A is catalogued as 3C 461 in the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources and as G111.7-2.1 in the Green Catalog of Supernova Remnants. It was the first neutron star detected to have a carbon atmosphere. The central star of Cassiopeia A is a neutron star. The optical component of the remnant was first discovered in 1950. It was one of the first discrete radio sources to be detected. Krause et al., and NRAO/AUI.Ĭassiopeia A was discovered in 1947 by radio astronomers from Cambridge, England. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, CXC/SAO/JPL-Caltech/Steward/O. This composite shows the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant across the spectrum: Gamma rays (magenta) from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope X-rays (blue, green) from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory visible light (yellow) from the Hubble Space Telescope infrared (red) from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and radio (orange) from the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M. It will keep expanding for thousands of years. The remnant’s expansion shell has an estimated temperature of 50 million degrees Fahrenheit and is expanding at 4,000 to 6,000 km/s. The progenitor star had an estimated mass 15 to 20 times that of the Sun. The clouds of expelled material would have cloaked the light of the supernova event. of Ariz./STScI/CXC/SAOĪnother possible explanation for no recorded sightings of the progenitor supernova is that the progenitor star was exceptionally massive and had ejected much of its outer layers before going supernova. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SAO Animation: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope are colored red visible data from the Hubble Space Telescope are yellow and X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are green and blue. It is made up of images taken by three of NASA’s Great Observatories, using three different wavebands of light. This stunning false-color picture shows off the many sides of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Its position, as given by Flamsteed, is within 10 arcminutes of the Cas A radio source. 3 Cassiopeiae is a hypothethical star, one that doesn’t correspond to any star observed today. The supernova, however, may have been recorded by the English astronomer John Flamsteed, who noted a sixth magnitude star on Augand recorded it as 3 Cassiopeiae. There are no recorded sightings of the supernova event, likely due to its light having been absorbed by interstellar dust. ![]() It can also be observed in infrared and X-ray wavelengths and appears as a ring of expanding material about 5 arcminutes across.Ĭassiopeia A is the remnant of a supernova that first became visible from Earth about 300 years ago. The remnant can be seen in visible light with amateur telescopes, starting with 9.25-inch instruments with filters. It lies at an approximate distance of 11,000 light years from Earth and has a diameter of about 10 light years. Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is a supernova remnant located in the constellation Cassiopeia. ![]()
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