Chandra releases 25-year X-ray video of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has produced a new video that shows the evolution of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant using observations collected over more than two and a half decades. The remnant, located in our galaxy about 17,000 light-years from Earth, was once a white dwarf star that exploded as a Type Ia supernova.

The video uses X-ray data from 2000, 2004, 2006, 2014 and 2025, making it the longest-spanning video Chandra has released. In X-ray light the remnant appears as a cloudy neon-blue ring with a diagonal cross; the sequence cycles through the five datasets and shows the ring subtly expanding.

Chandra’s data reveal that the fastest parts of the remnant are moving at about 13.8 million miles per hour (2% of the speed of light) toward the bottom of the image, while the slowest parts move toward the top at about 4 million miles per hour (0.5% of the speed of light). Researchers say the large speed difference is because the remnant is plowing into denser gas toward the top of the image than at the bottom, giving scientists information about the environment into which the star exploded.

“The plot of Kepler’s story is just now beginning to unfold,” said Jessye Gassel, a graduate student at George Mason University who led the work. Brian Williams of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, principal investigator of the observations, said understanding how supernovae behave is crucial to knowing cosmic history.

Key Topics

Science, Kepler's Supernova Remnant, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Type Ia Supernova, Jessye Gassel, Brian Williams