00:02Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe
00:05Kepler's Supernova Remnant
00:09A new movie shows the exciting development of Kepler's supernova remnant
00:14using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
00:17captured over more than two and a half decades.
00:21Kepler's supernova remnant, named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler,
00:26was first spotted in the night sky in 1604.
00:30Today, astronomers know that a white dwarf star exploded
00:34when it exceeded a critical mass after pulling material from a companion star
00:38or merging with another white dwarf.
00:41This kind of supernova is known as a Type Ia
00:44and scientists use it to measure the expansion of the universe.
00:49Supernova remnants, the debris fields left behind after a stellar explosion,
00:53often glow strongly in X-ray light.
00:56Because the material has been heated to millions of degrees from the blast,
01:00the remnant is located in our galaxy, about 17,000 light-years from Earth.
01:06This is relatively close in cosmic terms
01:09and allows Chandra to make exquisite images of the debris
01:12and how it changes with time.
01:16This latest movie includes Chandra's X-ray data
01:19from 2000, 2004, 2006, 2014, and 2025.
01:30This makes it the longest-spanning movie that Chandra has ever released.
01:35It also allows astronomers to watch as the remains from this shattered star
01:40crash into material already thrown out into space.
01:43The researchers used the movie to show that the fastest parts of the remnant
01:47are traveling at about 13.8 million miles per hour,
01:51or about 2% of the speed of light,
01:53moving towards the bottom of the image.
01:56Meanwhile, the slowest parts are traveling towards the top,
01:59at about 4 million miles per hour.
02:02This is a large difference in speed,
02:04and astronomers think it is explained
02:06by the gas that the remnant is plowing into towards the top of the image
02:10being denser than the gas towards the bottom.
02:12This gives scientists information about the environments
02:16into which this star exploded.
02:18Supernova explosions and the elements they hurl into space
02:21are the lifeblood of new stars and planets.
02:25Understanding exactly how they behave
02:27is crucial to knowing our cosmic history.
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