NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

For release: 05-27-03
Photo release #: 03-085

Chandra finds rich oxygen supply inside glowing ring

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The striking Chandra X-ray Observatory image of supernova remnant, SNR 0103-72.6, reveals a nearly perfect ring about 150 light years in diameter surrounding a cloud of gas enriched in oxygen and shock-heated to millions of degrees Celsius. The ring marks the outer limits of a shock wave produced as material ejected in the supernova explosion plows into the interstellar gas. The size of the ring indicates that we see the supernova remnant as it was about 10,000 years after its progenitor star exploded.

Scientists have known for years that oxygen and many other elements necessary for life are created in massive stars and dispersed in supernova explosions, but few supernova remnants rich in these elements have been observed.

SNR 0103-72.6 is in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) about 190,000 light years from Earth. The X-rays take about 190,000 years to reach us from the SMC, so the supernova explosion occurred about 200,000 years ago, asmeasured on Earth. One of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way galaxy, the SMC is visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. This supernova remnant will become an important laboratory for studying how stars forge the elements necessary for life. Although SNR 0103-72.6 is more distant than supernova remnants in our Galaxy, scientists have a clear view of it because its light is not blocked by the dusty spiral arms of the Milky Way. (NASA/CXC/Penn State/S. Park et al.)

Contact Steve Roy Media Relations Dept. (256) 544-0034 Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Obs. Center (617) 496-7998

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