Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/K.Eriksen et al.; Optical: DSS

A long Chandra observation of Tycho has revealed a pattern

of X-ray stripes never seen before in a supernova remnant. The

stripes are seen in the high-energy X-rays (blue) that also show the

blast wave, a shell of extremely energetic electrons. Low-energy X-

rays (red) show expanding debris from the supernova explosion. The

stripes, seen to the lower right of this composite image that includes

optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey, may provide the first

direct evidence that a cosmic event can accelerate particles to

energies a hundred times higher than achieved by the most powerful

particle accelerator on Earth.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/tycho/

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

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