NASA Space Observatories Glimpse Faint Afterglow of Nearby Stellar Explosion

FOR RELEASE: 9:00am (EDT) October 4, 2005

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC05-30

NASA SPACE OBSERVATORIES GLIMPSE FAINT AFTERGLOW OF NEARBY STELLAR
EXPLOSION

Intricate wisps of glowing gas float amid a myriad of stars in this
image of a supernova remnant, the ejected material from the explosion
of a massive star, that occurred some 3,000 years ago. This titanic
explosion took place in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby neighbor
galaxy some 160,000 light-years away. This composite image of N132D
comprises visible-light data taken in January 2004 with Hubble's
Advanced Camera for Surveys, and X-ray images obtained in July 2000 by
Chandra's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer. The complex structure of
N132D is due to the expanding supersonic shock wave from the explosion
impacting the interstellar gas of the LMC. A supernova remnant like
N132D provides information on stellar evolution and the creation of
chemical elements such as oxygen through nuclear reactions in their
cores.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: J.C. Green (Univ. of Colorado) and the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph (COS) GTO Team; NASA/CXO/SAO

For the full story, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2005/30
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2005/30

For additional information, please contact:
Jon A. Morse, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, Observational Cosmology
Laboratory, Mail stop 665.0, Greenbelt, MD 20771, (phone) 301-286-7923,
(e-mail) , or

Keith Noll, Hubble Heritage Team, Space Telescope Science Institute,
3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21218, (phone) 410-338-1828,
(fax) 410-338-4579, (e-mail) .

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA),
for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international
cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).