Telescope captures X-ray image of supernova remnant 15 million light-years away

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http://f.hiphotos.baidu.com/space/pic/item/0df3d7ca7bcb0a46675c10ac6b63f6246b60af2d.jpg An X-ray image of the supernova SN 1957D taken by the Chandra X-ray Space Telescope. According to reports in foreign media as of August 1st, Beijing time, this image shows the spiral galaxy M83; when viewed in the X-ray spectrum, we can see bright stars and hot gas. This image was taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Space Telescope, and it marked the first time that astronomers detected signals in the X-ray spectrum coming from the collapsed core of the supernova SN 1957D. 　　When a massive star (with at least 8 times the mass of the Sun) runs out of its energy supply, its core collapses, marking the death of the star. This violent collapse will trigger a powerful explosion, generating immense energy and heavy elements; sometimes the intensity of light released in such an explosion can exceed the brightness of all the other stars in the entire galaxy in which it occurs. After such a violent explosion, what remains of the original massive star is now only a dim, dense core, which becomes a neutron star or a white dwarf. 　　Over 50 years ago, the supernova SN 1957D erupted in the galaxy M83, which is located about 15 million light-years from Earth. We know very little about this outbreak. Astronomers have previously conducted observations in various different wavelengths, including the radio wavelength range and the optical wavelength range, and such observations have been going on for decades; yet no one has been able to detect the X-ray signals emitted by this explosion. 　　The Chandra telescope first attempted to search for X-ray signals from this supernova remnant in 2000 and 2001, but these two relatively brief observations yielded no results. Subsequently, Chandra was used again; this time it focused on the supernova SN 1957D for 8 and a half days. The long exposure time allowed the telescope to collect signals of sufficient intensity, enabling the detection of the X-ray radiation originating from the remnants of this supernova explosion. 　　This observation will help astronomers gain a deeper understanding of supernova explosion remnants. X-band data show that the supernova SN 1957D left behind a rapidly rotating core. The beam of light emitted from this dense core rotates rapidly like a lighthouse, and this is what is known as a pulsar. If it is confirmed that this residual core indeed ended up forming a pulsar, it will become the youngest pulsar ever observed by humans: only 55 years old. The paper on this discovery will be published in a recent issue of the Journal of Astrophysics.