NASA X-Ray Mission Gets Fresh Look at 2,000-Year-Old Supernova
24 Mar 2026, 19:57 GMT
By Lee Mohon
Topic: Chandra X-Ray Observatory
Source URL: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-x-ray-mission-gets-fresh-look-at-2000-year-old-supernova/
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have observed. When astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory previously targeted RCW 86, they discovered that a large “cavity” region around the system led the supernova to expand