N132D

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Chandra X-ray
Observatory Center
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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N132D: A supernova remnant located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light years from Earth.
(Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC)

Caption: Chandra's "true color" image of N132D shows a beautiful, complex remnant of the explosion of a massive star. The colors represent different ranges of X-rays, with red, green, and blue representing, low, medium, and higher X-ray energies. The horseshoe shape of the remnant is thought to be due to shock waves from the collision of the supernova ejecta with cool giant gas clouds. As the shock waves move through the gas they heat it to millions of degrees, producing the glowing X-ray shell.

Scale: Image is 100 arcsec on a side.

Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image

CXC operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
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