Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2019 December 11
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                N63A: Supernova Remnant in Visible and X-ray
     Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble, [6]Chandra; Processing &
                         [7]License: [8]Judy Schmidt

   Explanation: What has this supernova left behind? As little as 2,000
   years ago, light from a massive stellar explosion in the [9]Large
   Magellanic Cloud (LMC) first reached planet Earth. The [10]LMC is a
   close galactic neighbor of our [11]Milky Way Galaxy and the rampaging
   [12]explosion front is now seen moving out - destroying or displacing
   ambient gas clouds while leaving behind relatively dense knots of gas
   and dust. What remains is one of the largest [13]supernova remnants in
   the [14]LMC: N63A. Many of the surviving dense [15]knots have been
   themselves compressed and may further contract to form new stars. Some
   of the resulting stars may then explode in a [16]supernova, continuing
   the cycle. [17]Featured here is a combined image of N63A in the
   [18]X-ray from the [19]Chandra Space Telescope and in [20]visible light
   by [21]Hubble. The prominent knot of gas and dust on the upper right --
   informally dubbed the [22]Firefox -- is very bright in visible light,
   while the [23]larger supernova remnant shines most brightly in X-rays.
   [24]N63A spans over 25 [25]light years and lies about 150,000 light
   years away toward the southern [26]constellation of [27]Dorado.

                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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    Authors & editors: [39]Robert Nemiroff ([40]MTU) & [41]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([42]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [43]Specific rights apply.
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                A service of: [45]ASD at [46]NASA / [47]GSFC
                           & [48]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1912/N63A_HubbleChandraSchmidt_1019.jpg
   3. https://www.nasa.gov/
   4. http://www.esa.int/
   5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html
   6. https://chandra.harvard.edu/about/
   7. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
   8. http://geckzilla.com/
   9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190905.html
  10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100514.html
  11. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/285/the-milky-way-galaxy/
  12. http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/snr.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/supernova_remnants.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010804.html
  15. http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~ym101/tie/aps97tie.html
  16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8en5uDqw0aM
  17. https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/48708158376/in/dateposted/
  18. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/11_xrays
  19. https://chandra.harvard.edu/about/
  20. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/09_visiblelight
  21. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html
  22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#/media/File:Firefox_logo,_2019.svg
  23. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019ApJ...873...40S/abstract
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040101.html
  25. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html
  26. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellations
  27. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/constellations/dorado.html
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191210.html
  29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  32. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  37. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=191211
  38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191212.html
  39. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  40. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  41. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  42. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  43. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  44. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  45. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  46. https://www.nasa.gov/
  47. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  48. http://www.mtu.edu/