Object Name:

Cassiopeia A

Object Description:

Supernova Remnant

Position (J2000):

R.A. 23h 23m 24s
Dec. +58° 48' 54"

Constellation:

Cassiopeia

Distance:

About 10,000 light-years 3,100 parsecs away.

Dimensions:

This image is 8.5 arcminutes (25 light-years or 7.7 parsecs) wide. The bright remnant shell has a diameter of about 4 parsecs (13 light-years).

Data Description:

This image was created from HST data from the following proposals: 9890 and 10286, both by: R. Fesen (Dartmouth College), J. Morse (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), J. Raymond (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), R. Chevalier (University of Virginia), and M. Dopita (Australian National University).

Instrument:

ACS/WFC

Exposure Date:

March, 2004 and December, 2004

Exposure Time:

2.3 days

Filters:

F625W (SDSS r), F775W (SDSS i) , and F850LP (SDSS z)

Image Credit:

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Release Date:

August 29, 2006

Color:

This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters. Three filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are:

F625W Blue
F775W Green
F850LP Red

Orientation/Scale: