Astronomy

This Chandra X-ray Observatory image shows the debris of a massive star explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth. The supernova remnant (SNR) shown here, N132D, is the brightest in the Magellanic clouds, and belongs to a rare class of oxygen-rich remnants. Most of the oxygen that we breathe on Earth is thought to have come from explosions similar to this one.

The colors in this image show low energy X-rays (red), intermediate energy X-rays (green) and high energy X-rays (blue). Substantial amounts of oxygen are detected in this image, particularly in the green regions near the center of the image. The origin of this shell is unknown, but it might have been created by a `nickel bubble’ shortly after the supernova explosion, caused by radioactive energy input from nickel that was created by the explosion. The existence of such bubbles is predicted by theoretical work.

Image credits: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.J.Borkowski et al.

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