Chandra Finds Possible Supernova Remnant Near Milky Way’s Center

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers may have found a supernova remnant in the middle of our galaxy. A paper describing the findings was published in The Astrophysical Journal. Supernova remnants are the expanding remains of exploded stars and provide elements like iron, oxygen, and silicon that are critical for planet formation and life.

If confirmed, this remnant would be one of the closest discovered to the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center, a region crowded with massive stars, long magnetic-field threads and dense gas clouds orbiting rapidly. A new composite image combines X-rays from Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton (shown in blue), radio data from the MeerKAT telescope (shown in red) and optical data from the Pan-STARRS telescopes.

The plane of the galaxy runs horizontally across the image and the central black hole sits off to the left.

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