Lord of the Rings
The photograph shows the remains of a star that has exploded in what astronomers call a supernova explosion. There are different types of supernova explosions. The kind that created the remains shown here is called a ‘Type 1a Supernova’. Such supernova explosions are useful to astronomers, as they allow them to work out distances in the Universe.
Credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Texas/S.Park et al, ROSAT; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
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