NASA has released a video clip of a 450-year-old supernova remnant that has been continuously expanding for the past 15 years.
The supernova remnant was first discovered by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1572. He was charting stars located in the Cassiopeia constellation when he noticed one that he hadn't observed before.
Brahe studied the newly discovered celestial object every night, giving it the nickname "de nova stella" or new star. The star remained visible during evenings for close to two years and was even said to be as bright as Venus.
Present-day astronomers have continued to observe the debris from the Tycho supernova remnant using data collected through various space telescopes, including the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), which was launched by NASA in 1999.
The researchers discovered that the massive explosion was created following the death of a white dwarf star in this area of space. The event is now considered a part of a class of supernovas known as Type Ia, which scientists use to monitor how the universe expands.
Using observations made through the CXO between 2000 and 2015, NASA scientists were able to produce a video of the Tycho supernova remnant's evolution in X-ray throughout the years. The clip shows how the remnant continues to expand from the time of explosion, which occurred 450 years ago, until today as seen from the Earth some 10,000 light-years away.
The American space agency was also able to produce another clip using three images that were developed by combining the CXO's X-ray data with 30 years' worth of radio wave observations made by the VLA. Researchers have made use of X-ray and radio wave data sets in order to find out more about the white dwarf star's supernova and its resulting remnant.
A study regarding the X-ray and radio wave observations of the Tycho supernova remnant's expansion is featured in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. It was conducted as a joint effort between researchers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Michigan State University, North Carolina State University, Towson University and the University of North Florida.
