*Description*: Detailed knots and filamentary ribbons of glowing gas are apparent in this Hubble Space Telescope image of Kepler's supernova remnant. This image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in August 2003. Filters onboard Hubble isolate visible light emitted by hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in the remnant and also let through starlight from foreground and background stars. These images reveal where the supernova shock wave is slamming into dense regions of nearby gas. The bright glowing knots are dense clumps that form behind the outward moving shock wave. As the shock ploughs into material lost from the progenitor star after the initial supernova explosion, instabilities left in its wake cause the swept-up gas to fragment into clumps. The Hubble data also show thin filaments of gas. These filaments reveal where the shock wave is encountering lower-density, more uniform interstellar material. Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: Kepler's Supernova Remnant, SN 1604, V843 Ophiuchi, G004.5+06.8 Object Description: Supernova Remnant Position (J2000): R.A. 17h 30m 40s.8 Dec. -21° 29' 11".0 Constellation: Ophiuchus Distance: 13,000 light-years (4,000 parsecs) Dimensions: This image is 5 arcminutes (19 light-years or 5.8 parsecs) wide. About the Chandra Space Telescope Data Data Description: This image was created from Chandra observations from proposal 01500022: S. Holt (F.W. Olin College of Engineering), U. Hwang, R. Petre, and M. Corcoran (GSFC), E. Gotthelf (Columbia Astrophysics Lab), G. Allen (Massachusetts Inst. of Tech.), J. Keohane (North Carolina). The science team using this data is: R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins Univ.), T. DeLaney (U. Minnesota and Harvard-Smithsonian/Center for Astrophysics), L. Rudnick and J. A. Ennis (U. Minnesota), I. Harrus (Goddard Space Flight Center). Instrument: ACIS-S Exposure Date(s): June 30, 2000 Exposure Time: 50 kiloseconds (~14 hours) Energies: 0.3-6 keV About the Hubble Space Telescope Data Data Description: This image was created from Hubble observations from proposal 9731: R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins Univ.), L. Rudnick (U. Minnesota), T. DeLaney (U. Minnesota and Harvard-Smithsonian/Center for Astrophysics), I. Harrus (Goddard Space Flight Center). Instrument: ACS/WFC; WFPC2 Exposure Date(s): August 28/29, 2003; May 26, 2004 Exposure Time: 23,509 seconds (6.5 hours) Filters: F502N ([O III]), F550M ("V"), F658N (Halpha+[N II]), F660N ([N II]), and F673N ([S II]) About the Spitzer Space Telescope Data Data Description: This image was created from Spitzer observations from proposal 3413: W. Blair, R. Sankrit, and P. Ghavamian (Johns Hopkins Univ.), K. Borkowski and S. Reynolds (North Carolina State Univ.), and K. Long (Space Telescope Science Inst.). Instrument: MIPS; IRAC Exposure Date(s): August 25, 2004; September 3, 2004 Exposure Time: 5218 seconds (1.5 hours) Frequencies: MIPS: 24 and 70 micron; IRAC: 4.5 and 8 micron About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins University) Release Date: October 7, 2004 Scale: The joint Chandra-Hubble-Spitzer release image of Kepler's Supernova Remnant is composed of the following energies/filters/frequencies: Chandra: 4-6keV and 0.3-1.4keV Hubble: F658N (Halpha+[N II]) Spitzer: 24 microns Orientation: Kepler's Supernova Remnant In Visible, X-Ray and Infrared Light [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2004/29/images/b/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] *News Release Number:*: STScI-2004-29n
