Declination −27° 10′ 06″ | Right ascension 17 48 45.4 Distance 25,000 Light-years Discovery date 1985 | |
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Similar Milky Way, SN 2003fg, SN 185, SN 2007bi, Kepler's Supernova | ||
Youngest supernova remnant g1 9 0 3
Supernova remnant G1.9+0.3 in the constellation Sagittarius is the youngest known supernova remnant (SNR) in the Milky Way Galaxy. The remnant's young age was established by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the VLA radio observatory. It was a type Ia supernova believed to have exploded about 25,000 years ago, and the signal began reaching Earth around 1890-1908. The light from the supernova would have been visible to astronomers at that time had it not been obscured by the dense gas and dust of the Galactic Center, where it resides. Prior to this discovery, the youngest-known Milky Way supernova remnant was Cassiopeia A, at about 330 years. The remnant has a radius of over 1.3 light years.
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Discovery
G1.9+0.3 was first identified as a SNR in 1984 from observations made with the VLA radio telescope. Because of its unusually small angular size, it was thought to be young—less than about one thousand years old. In 2007, X-ray observations made with the Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed that the object was about 15% larger than in the earlier VLA observations. Further observations made with the VLA in 2008 verified increase in size, implying it is no more than 150 years old. A more recent estimate put its age at 110 years as of the data collection in 2008. That study also found that it was probably triggered by the merger of two white dwarf stars.
Announcement
The discovery that G1.9+0.3 had been identified as the youngest known Galactic SNR was announced on May 14, 2008 at a NASA press conference. In the days leading up to the announcement, NASA would only hint that they were going "to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years."
