Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2026 June 18 [2]A composite image shows a field of stars on a dark background, together X-rays in blue and radio in red Possible Supernova Remnant in Galactic Center Image Credit & Copyright: X-ray: [3]NASA/[4]CXC/[5]UCLA/[6]Z. Zhu et al.; [7]ESA/[8]XMM-Newton; Optical: [9]PanSTARRS; Radio: [10]MeerKAT; Image Processing: [11]NASA/[12]CXC/[13]SAO/[14]L. Frattare and [15]P. Edmonds Text: [16]Cecilia Chirenti ([17]NASA [18]GSFC, [19]UMCP, [20]CRESST II) Explanation: Do you see that blue blob to the lower right of the image center? Astronomers think that it shows where a massive star [21]exploded as a supernova whose light reached Earth [22]1,700 years ago. The [23]image combines optical data from the [24]PanSTARRS telescopes in Hawaii (background stars in red, green, and blue), radio from the [25]MeerKAT telescope in South Africa (large red cloud) and X-rays from [26]NASA's [27]Chandra X-ray Observatory and [28]ESA’s [29]XMM-Newton (shown in blue). The large cloud is a [30]star forming region called [31]Sagittarius C, which is approximately 50 [32]light-years in extent and about 26,000 light-years from [33]Earth. It is located only about 260 light-years from the [34]supermassive black hole in the center of the Galaxy (off to the [35]left of the image). If the [36]blue blob is confirmed to be a [37]supernova remnant, it would be one of the closest ever discovered to the [38]Galactic Center. In this [39]dense region, the deaths of massive stars are connected to the birth of new stars through gas and magnetic fields in a complex way. Tomorrow's picture: Vincent __________________________________________________________________ [40]< | [41]Archive | [42]Submissions | [43]Index | [44]Search | [45]Calendar | [46]RSS | [47]Education | [48]About APOD | [49]Discuss | [50]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [51]Robert Nemiroff ([52]MTU) & [53]Jerry Bonnell ([54]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [55]Specific rights apply. [56]NASA Web Privacy, [57]Accessibility, [58]Notices; A service of: [59]ASD at [60]NASA / [61]GSFC, [62]NASA Science Activation & [63]Michigan Tech. U. 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