Cassiopeia A at Dusk

A radio image of Cassiopeia A, which is a young supernova remnant nearby in our Galaxy, composited with a photograph of the NRAO Very Large Array telescope at dusk. Cassiopeia A is the brightest radio source in the sky except the Sun. It is about 10 light years across and about 10,000 light years away. It is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred approximately 300 years ago.

The VLA image of Cassiopeia A is courtesy of NRAO and R. Perley, and was made at a frequency of 1.38 GHz using the NRAO Very Large Array. The resolution is 1.3". The brightness scale runs from deep brown through blue to white. In addition, areas where the brightness gradients are steep are highlighted faintly in red. The original radio data was taken from the NRAO CD-ROM: "Images of the Radio Universe", 1992.

Legacy Astronomical Images

NRAO/AUI/NSF does not hold full copyright for this image. Contact the archivist for details.

Legacy Astronomical Image

Cassiopeia A

Michael Bietenholz, York University

Data courtesy of NRAO and R. Perley

M. Anderson, L. Rudnick, P. Leppik, R. Perley, R. Braun

Very Large Array (VLA)

1987-07-30

continuum

L

20 cm

1.4 GHz

RA 23:23:24.000, Dec: 58:48:54.000 (J2000)

0.108333 x 0.108333 degrees

Contact the archivist for a high resolution tif of this image.

Galactic Sources Series

Supernova Remnants Unit