page_title: Astrophysical X-ray source
section_title: Puppis
hierarchical_section_title: Astrophysical X-ray source / Celestial X-ray sources / Puppis
caption_attribution_description: English: The Chandra three-color image (inset) of a region of the supernova remnant Puppis A (wide-angle view from ROSAT in blue) reveals a cloud being torn apart by a shock wave produced in a supernova explosion. This is the first X-ray identification of such a process in an advanced phase. In the inset, the blue vertical bar and the blue fuzzy ball or cap to the right show how the cloud has been spread out into an oval-shaped structure that is almost empty in the center. The Chandra data also provides information on the temperature in and around the cloud, with blue representing higher temperature gas. The oval structure strongly resembles those seen on much smaller size scales in experimental simulations of the interaction of supernova shock waves with dense interstellar clouds (see sequence of laboratory images). In these experiments, a strong shock wave sweeps over a vaporized copper ball that has a diameter roughly equal to a human hair. The cloud is compressed, and then expands in about 40 nanoseconds to form an oval bar and cap structure much like that seen in Puppis A.
context_page_description: Astrophysical X-ray sources are astronomical objects with physical properties which result in the emission of X-rays.
  There are a number of types of astrophysical objects which emit X-rays, from galaxy clusters, through black holes in active galactic nuclei to galactic objects such as supernova remnants, stars, and binary stars containing a white dwarf, neutron star or black hole. Some solar system bodies emit X-rays, the most notable being the Moon, although most of the X-ray brightness of the Moon arises from reflected solar X-rays. A combination of many unresolved X-ray sources is thought to produce the observed X-ray background. The X-ray continuum can arise from bremsstrahlung, either magnetic or ordinary Coulomb, black-body radiation, synchrotron radiation, inverse Compton scattering of lower-energy photons by relativistic electrons, knock-on collisions of fast protons with atomic electrons, and atomic recombination, with or without additional electron transitions.
  Furthermore, celestial entities in space are discussed as celestial X-ray sources.
context_section_description: Puppis A is a supernova remnant (SNR) about 10 light-years in diameter. The supernova occurred approximately 3700 years ago.
caption: The Chandra three-color image (inset) is a region of the supernova remnant Puppis A (wide-angle view from ROSAT in blue). reveals a cloud being torn apart by a shock wave produced in a supernova explosion. ROSAT image is 88 arcmin across; Chandra image 8 arcmin across. RA 08h 23m 08.16s Dec −42° 41' 41.40" in Puppis. Observation date: 4 September 2005. Color code: Energy (Red 0.4–0.7 keV; Green 0.7–1.2 keV; Blue 1.2–10 keV). Instrument: ACIS.
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