One of the missions of the James Webb Space Telescope is to study supernova remnants. Atoms of which
What is known
James Webb studies the supernova Cas A from the constellationCassiopeia, which erupted 340 years ago and is the youngest in the Milky Way. The Cas A remnant is 11,000 light-years away and extends over 10,000 light-years.
Cas A residues have already been studied by otherstools that are in the arsenal of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In particular, with the help of the Chandra X-ray observatory. The resulting data was combined with images taken by James Webb.
The space telescope takes pictures in the rangeinvisible to the human eye. In this regard, scientists specially color the images. The color depends on the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation (from red to blue as the frequency increases).
Areas where thethe material ejected by the star collides with the gas around it. The bright pink filaments are a mixture of heavy elements, including argon and neon.
It is also worth noting the presence of a greenish loop inthe center of the image, which extends to the right side of the photo. Scientists have not yet been able to explain its nature. In general, according to the researchers, a detailed study of the resulting image will allow us to learn more about the nature of dust in interstellar space, about the explosions of stars and about the history of our origin.