Article Posted on : - Mar 25, 2011

The Tycho supernova. A NASA photo

WASHINGTON (BNS): NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory has captured the Tycho supernova remnant emitting debris and powerful electrons in the Milky Way galaxy.

The supernova, produced by the explosion of a white dwarf star and first spotted by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1572, is located about 13,000 light years from Earth.

In the new X-ray image, taken by the Chandra telescope, the Low-energy X-rays (red) show the expanding debris from the supernova explosion and high energy X-rays (blue) show the blast wave, a shell of extremely energetic electrons.

These high-energy X-rays show a pattern of X-ray “stripes” never previously seen in a supernova remnant, according to NASA.

These stripes are thought to be regions where the turbulence is greater and the magnetic fields more tangled than surrounding areas. Electrons become trapped in these regions and emit X-rays as they spiral around the magnetic field lines.

According to scientists, the stripes may provide the first direct evidence that supernova remnants can accelerate particles to energies a hundred times higher than achieved by the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider.

The results could explain how some of the extremely energetic particles bombarding the Earth, called cosmic rays, are produced, and they provide support for a theory about how magnetic fields can be dramatically amplified in such blast waves, NASA said.