Credit: NASA/CXC/Eureka Scientific/M.Rob

G11.2-0.3 is a circularly symmetric supernova remnant that contains a dense, rotating dead star at its center, representing a textbook case of what the remnant of an exploding star should look like after a couple thousand years. In Chandra's X-ray image, the pulsar and a cigar-shaped cloud of energetic particles, known as a pulsar wind nebula, are predominantly seen as high-energy X-rays (blue). A shell of heated gas from the outer layers of the exploded star surrounds the pulsar and the pulsar wind nebula and emits lower-energy X-rays (represented in green and red).

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/g11/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html