ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

This composite image of the Tycho supernova remnant combines infrared and X-ray observations obtained with NASA's
Spitzer and Chandra space observatories, respectively, and the Calar Alto observatory, Spain. It shows the scene more
than four centuries after the brilliant star explosion witnessed by Tycho Brahe and other astronomers of that era.

The explosion has left a blazing hot cloud of expanding debris (green and yellow). The location of the blast's outer shock
wave can be seen as a blue sphere of ultra-energetic electrons. Newly synthesized dust in the ejected material and heated
pre-existing dust from the area around the supernova radiate at infrared wavelengths of 24 microns (red). Foreground and
background stars in the image are white.

Oliver Krause, from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, recently studied reflected light from the supernova explosion seen by Brahe. Use of these "light echoes" - not shown in this figure - has confirmed previous suspicions that the explosion was a Type Ia supernova. This type of supernova is generally believed to be caused by the explosion of a white dwarf star in a binary star system.

Color Code:     X-ray: Yellow, Green, Blue       Infrared: Red       Optical: White stars