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Figure: False-Colour X-ray and infrared emission image from the core of the infrared shell. The RGB colours correspond to Chandra X-ray 0.2-10 keV (blue), IRAC infrared 8 μm (green), and HPACS 70 μm (red) data. The intensity scale is logarithmic for all channels. Overlaid are equal brightness levels from the MIPS 24 μm band. Note that around the CCO the infrared emission is suppressed in the 70 μm band and enhanced in the 24 μm band suggesting higher dust temperature. Credit: Doroshenko et al 2016 Central compact objects (CCOs) are thought to be young isolated neutron stars that were born during the preceding core-collapse supernova explosion.

Image: At a distance of about 20,000 light years, G292.0+1.8 is one of only three supernova remnants in the Milky Way known to contain large amounts of oxygen. These oxygen-rich supernovas are of great interest to astronomers because they are one of the primary sources of the heavy elements (that is, everything other than hydrogen and helium) necessary to form planets and people. The X-ray image from Chandra shows a rapidly expanding, intricately structured, debris field that contains, along with oxygen (yellow and orange), other elements such as magnesium (green) and silicon and sulfur (blue) that were forged in the star before it exploded. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO The processes of particles acceleration to very high energies from the supernova shock region and diffusion in the interstellar medium of such particles has not been well understood so far. Gamma-ray observations in the GeV regime are a powerful probe of these mechanisms