Full-shell image of SN 1006 showing location of Hubble observations (ground-based image)

01/07/2008 15:00

This image is a composite of visible (or optical), radio, and X-ray data of the full shell of the supernova remnant from SN 1006. The radio data show much of the extent that the X-ray image shows. In contrast, the visible light stems primarily from a small delicate filament along the northwest rim of the shell. The entire object has an angular size of roughly 30 arcminutes (0.5 degree, or about the size of the full Moon), and a physical size of 60 light-years based on its distance of nearly 7,000 light-years. The small green box along the bright filament at the top of the image corresponds to the dimensions of the Hubble release image.

The optical data were obtained at the University of Michigan's 0.9-meter Curtis Schmidt telescope at the National Science Foundation's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) near La Serena, Chile. CTIO is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which has its headquarters in Tucson, Arizona (USA). H-alpha, continuum-subtracted data were provided by F. Winkler (Middlebury College) et al. The X-ray data were acquired from the Chandra X-ray Observatory's AXAF CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) at 0.5-3keV, and were provided by J. Hughes (Rutgers University) et al. The radio data, supplied by K. Dyer and collaborators Maddalena and Cornwell (NRAO, Socorro, USA), were a composite from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array (NRAO/VLA) in Socorro, New Mexico (USA), along with NRAO's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in Green Bank, West Virginia (USA). These radio data were at the 1.4 GHz frequency. Data of the supernova remnant were blended on a visible-light stellar background created using the Digitized Sky Survey's Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO2) blue and red plates.