Massive starsspend their brie lives furiously burning nuclear fuel Through fusionat extreme temperatures and densities surrounding thestellar core, nuclei of light element like Hydrogen and Helium are combined to heavie elements likeCarbon, Oxygen, etc. in a progression which ends with Iron.And so a supernova explosion,a massive star's inevitable and spectacular demise,blasts back into space debri enriched inheavier elements to be incorporated into other stars and planets (an people!).This detaile false-color x-ray imagefrom the orbiting ChandraObservatory shows such a hot, expanding stella debriscloud about 36 light-years across.Cataloged as G292.0+1.8, this young supernova remnantin the southern constellatio Centaurus resulted froma massive star which exploded an estimated 1,600 years ago.Bluish colors highlight filaments of the mulitmillion degree gaswhich are exceptionall rich in Oxygen, Neon, and Magnesium.Just below and left of center, a point like object in the Chandra imagesuggests tha theenriching supernova also produced a pulsar inits aftermath, a rotating neutron star remnant of the collapsed stellarcore.
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