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NASA Spots 1,700-Year-Old Supernova Remnant in Sagittarius C

6/16/2026

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Summary

Story summary

NASA's Chandra captured a bright X-ray blob in Sagittarius C, 26,000 light-years away, as a possible supernova remnant.
The explosion occurred 1,700 years ago, with debris expanding at about 2 million miles per hour, and no elevated elemental abundances were found, suggesting mixing with surrounding gas.
Researchers combined data from Chandra, XMM-Newton, MeerKAT, Pan-STARRS and James Webb, finding X-ray emission ten times brighter than typical stellar clusters, ruling out heating by massive stars.

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Story summary

NASA's Chandra captured a bright X-ray blob in Sagittarius C, 26,000 light-years away, as a possible supernova remnant.
The explosion occurred 1,700 years ago, with debris expanding at about 2 million miles per hour, and no elevated elemental abundances were found, suggesting mixing with surrounding gas.
Researchers combined data from Chandra, XMM-Newton, MeerKAT, Pan-STARRS and James Webb, finding X-ray emission ten times brighter than typical stellar clusters, ruling out heating by massive stars.