Kepler’s Supernova was first spotted in the night sky in 1604. Since then, astronomers have paid close attention to it, as its remnant (the debris fields left behind after a stellar explosion) has helped them measure the expansion of the universe. Now, this celestial body is at the heart of a project that’s a quarter of a century in the making. NASA has released a time-lapse video showing how much Kepler’s Supernova remnant has grown over the last 25 years.
The time-lapse was created using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope. They explain that, although the remnant is 17,000 light-years from Earth, the observatory was able to capture its evolution because the material glows strongly in X-ray light after being heated to millions of degrees from the blast. Thanks to the observatory being launched over 26 years ago, it was able to get snapshots in 2000, 2004, 2006, 2014, and 2025.
Kepler’s Supernova is a Type Ia supernova, which occurs in binary systems where one of the stars is a white dwarf. In the case of Kepler, it is thought to have exceeded its critical mass and exploded after pulling material from a companion star, or merging with another white dwarf.
The time-lapse work was led by Jessye Gassel, a graduate student at George Mason University. “The plot of Kepler’s story is just now beginning to unfold,” Gassel says. “It’s remarkable that we can watch as these remains from this shattered star crash into material already thrown out into space.”
In the video, the fastest parts of the remnant are traveling at about 13.8 million miles per hour, which is 2% of the speed of light. On the other hand, the slowest parts, located near the bottom of the video, are traveling toward the top at about 4 million miles per hour, or 0.5% of the speed of light. This is due to the gas in the top of the image being denser than the gas toward the bottom. This gives clues to the astronomers as to how the star exploded.
“Supernova explosions and the elements they hurl into space are the lifeblood of new stars and planets,” says Brian Williams of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and principal investigator of the new Chandra observations of Kepler. “Understanding exactly how they behave is crucial to knowing our cosmic history.”
NASA has released a time-lapse video showing how Kepler’s Supernova has grown over the last 25 years.
Sources: Supernova Remnant Video From NASA’s Chandra Is Decades in Making
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