Tycho is the remnant of the supernova that Tycho Brahe watched in Cassiopeia, the new star that helped overturn the idea of an unchanging sky.
At a glance
| type | supernova remnant |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 8,150 light-years (2.5 kpc) |
| its light left it | 8,150 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 19 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Tycho (SN 1572)
A brilliant new star, SN 1572, appeared in Cassiopeia and was observed in detail by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. He showed that it did not move against the stars as something near the Earth would, so it lay among the fixed stars, a direct blow to the old belief that the heavens never change.
The remnant left behind is an almost round shell of hot gas, bright in X-rays and radio. Its light echo, the original explosion’s light reflected off distant dust and arriving only recently, has been captured and its spectrum shows a thermonuclear supernova: the explosion of a white dwarf in a binary system, rather than the collapse of a massive star.
X-ray images show fine stripes near its edge, read as signs of particles being accelerated to very high energies in its shock.
What you see in the piece
It is drawn as a hollow, rippled shell of shocked gas, faint at visible wavelengths at its distance and clearer in the radio band, where supernova shells shine.
Measured or modelled
Which star, if any, was the white dwarf’s companion is debated; candidate survivors have been proposed but none is confirmed. The drawn extent is modelled.
Questions
What was Tycho’s supernova?
It was a supernova in Cassiopeia observed by Tycho Brahe. Its remnant shows it was a thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf.
How far away is Tycho’s supernova remnant?
The Tycho remnant is about 8,150 light-years (2.5 kpc) from the Sun.