N63A

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Chandra X-ray
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N63A: A supernova remnant 160,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Warren et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/U. Ill/Y.Chu; Radio: ATCA/U. Ill/J.Dickel et al.)

Caption: Chandra's image (blue) of N63A has been combined with optical (green) and radio (red) images to make this composite image. The X-rays show material heated to about ten million degrees Celsius by a shock wave generated by the supernova explosion. The central region of the remnant is bright in optical and radio light because the supernova shock wave is engulfing a massive cloud of dust and gas. Collisions such as this are thought to trigger the formation of a new generation of stars. The fluffy crescent-shaped X-ray features that appear around the edge of the remnant are thought to be fragments of high-speed matter shot out from the star when it exploded, like shrapnel from a bomb.

Scale: Image is 112 arcsec per side

Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image

CXC operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
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