Cassiopeia, Outer Space Supernova Post-it Notes

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series: This really deep Chandra image shows Cassiopeia A, the youngest supernova remnant in the Milky Way. New analysis shows that this supernova remnant acts like a relativistic pinball machine by accelerating electrons to enormous energies. The blue, wispy arcs in the image show where the acceleration is taking place in an expanding shock wave that was generated by the explosion. The red and green regions show material from the destroyed star that has been heated to millions of degrees by it. Image credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/UMass Amherst/M.D. Stage et al.