Possible supernova remnant could be closest ever discovered to Milky Way black hole

Space.com

Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have identified evidence for a supernova remnant located about 26,000 light-years from Earth. This discovery offers new insights into the volatile and exotic region surrounding our galaxy's central black hole.  Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart

Transcript

00:01Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe

00:06Sagittarius C

00:10Astronomers may have found a supernova remnant in an intriguing neighborhood of our galactic downtown.

00:16This new supernova remnant, if confirmed, would be one of the closest ever discovered to the supernova black hole at

00:23the central region of the Milky Way galaxy,

00:25an exotic region crammed with massive stars, long threads of magnetic fields, and dense clouds of gas orbiting rapidly around

00:33the galactic center.

00:35The evidence for this supernova remnant, located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, comes from X-ray data from

00:43NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton.

00:46The X-ray data reveal a blob of X-ray emission that may come from the remains of a massive

00:52star that self-destructed as a supernova buried within the larger cloud of expanding gas.

00:58If this is indeed a supernova remnant, then it is expanding at about 2 million miles per hour and is

01:05at least about 1,700 years old.

01:09Previously, observations with NASA's now-retired SOFIA telescope had shown evidence for an expanding shell of gas surrounding Sagittarius C.

01:17This gave astronomers a hint that the stellar explosion had occurred in the same spot.

01:23Supernova remnants are the expanding remains of exploded stars and provide elements, like iron, oxygen, and silicon, that are critical

01:32for the formation of planets and for life as we know it to form and flourish.

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