NASA recently released new Chandra/IXPE collaborative imagery entitled “Unlocking the Mysteries of the Historic Tycho Supernova” on 2/28/23. Chandra has repeatedly observed the Tycho supernova remnant over its decades of operations, helping researchers make landmark discoveries about this fascinating formation. With its ability to identify and track polarized X-ray light, IXPE builds on the groundwork laid by Chandra. IXPE revealed, for the first time, the geometry of the magnetic fields close to the supernova’s blast wave, which is still propagating from the initial explosion and forms a boundary around the ejected material. Understanding the magnetic field geometry allows scientists to further investigate how particles are accelerated there. A thin red line around the outside of the supernova remnant, seen in the Chandra data, shows where electrons have been accelerated to high energies by spiraling around magnetic fields lines and producing X-rays. This provides evidence that supernova remnants are a major source of energetic particles, including electrons and protons, which continually bombard Earth’s atmosphere.
For more information: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Historic Tycho Supernova.
