European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: ESA/Hubble Photo Release heic1614

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the beating heart of one of the most visually appealing, and most studied, supernova remnants known — the Crab Nebula. At the centre of this nebula the spinning core of a deceased star breathes life into the gas that surrounds it. (learn more)

Source: ESA/Hubble heic1520

Image credits: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope imaged three magnificent sections of the Veil Nebula in 1997. Now, a stunning new set of images from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 capture these scattered stellar remains in spectacular new detail and reveal its expansion over the last years. (read more)

Source: ESO eso1401Composite image of Supernova 1987A.
Image credits: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A. Angelich. Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. X-Ray image: The NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Striking new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope capture, for the first time, the remains of a recent supernova brimming with freshly formed dust. If enough of this dust makes the perilous transition into interstellar space, it could explain how many galaxies acquired their dusty, dusky appearance. (read more)

Source: ESA News

Supernova remnant SNR1987A  in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Image credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA.

The first direct detection of radioactive titanium associated with supernova remnant 1987A has been made by ESA’s Integral space observatory. The radioactive decay has likely been powering the glowing remnant around the exploded star for the last 20 years.(read more)

Source: Chandra

G350.1-0.3 is an exceptionally bright supernova remnant 15,000 light years from Earth.
Image credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/I.Lovchinsky et al, IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

G350.1-0.3 is a supernova remnant located about 14,700 light years from Earth toward the center of the Milky Way.Vital clues about the devastating ends to the lives of massive stars can be found by studying the aftermath of their explosions.In its more than twelve years of science operations, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has studied many of these supernova remnants sprinkled across the Galaxy.Vital clues about the devastating ends to the lives of massive stars can be found by studying the aftermath of their explosions. In its more than twelve years of science operations, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has studied many of these supernova remnants sprinkled across the Galaxy. (learn more)

Source: Chandra CXC

RCW86 supernova remnant.
Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/B. Williams (NCSU)

Chandra, XMM-Newton, Spitzer, and WISE - combined to make a new discovery on a very old supernova remnant, in a location where Chinese astronomers witnessed an event in 185 AD, documenting a mysterious "guest star" that remained for 8 months. The data now revealed shows it was a Type Ia Supernova. (see source)

Source: Chandra CXC

G299.2-2.9 is a supernova remnant found about 16,000 light years from Earth.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U. Texas at Arlington/S.Park et al, ROSAT;
Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF

G299.2-2.9 is an intriguing supernova remnant found about 16,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy . Evidence points to G299.2-2.9 being the remains of a Type Ia supernova, where a white dwarf has grown sufficiently massive to cause a thermonuclear explosion. Because it is older than most supernova remnants caused by these explosions, at an age of about 4500 years, G299.2-2.9 provides astronomers with an excellent opportunity to study how these objects evolve over time. It also provides a probe of the Type Ia supernova explosion that produced this structure. (read more)

Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

HST image of SN 1987A showing the brightening ring of supernova debris.
Image credit: Pete Challis (CfA).

In 1987, light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, reached Earth. Named Supernova 1987A, it was the closest supernova explosion witnessed in almost 400 years, allowing astronomers to study it in unprecedented detail as it evolves.

Last Wednesday a team of astronomers announced that the supernova debris, which has faded over the years, is brightening. This shows that a different power source has begun to light the debris, and marks the transition from a supernova to a supernova remnant. (read more)

Source: NASA-Fermi

The famous Crab Nebula supernova remnant has erupted in an enormous flare five times more powerful than any flare previously seen from the object. On April 12, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope first detected the outburst, which lasted six days.

The nebula is the wreckage of an exploded star that emitted light which reached Earth in the year 1054. It is located 6500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. At the heart of an expanding gas cloud lies what is left of the original star's core, a superdense neutron star that spins 30 times a second. With each rotation, the star swings intense beams of radiation toward Earth, creating the pulsed emission characteristic of spinning neutron stars (also known as pulsars).

Apart from these pulses, astrophysicists believed the Crab Nebula was a virtually constant source of high-energy radiation. But in January, scientists associated with several orbiting observatories, including NASA's Fermi, Swift and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, reported long-term brightness changes at X-ray energies. (read more)