{"id":1770,"date":"2023-12-11T17:53:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T17:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2025-07-30T13:42:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T17:42:35","slug":"star-of-wonder-dazzling-new-image-of-supernova-cassiopeia-a-released-by-first-lady-jill-biden-and-purdue-astronomer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2023\/Q4\/star-of-wonder-dazzling-new-image-of-supernova-cassiopeia-a-released-by-first-lady-jill-biden-and-purdue-astronomer","title":{"rendered":"Star of wonder: Dazzling new image of supernova Cassiopeia A released by First Lady Jill Biden and Purdue astronomer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"purdue-initial-words-wrap\"><p class=\"purdue-initial-words wp-block-paragraph\">WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. &mdash;<\/p> \n<p>Ten thousand years ago, a star exploded. Now scientists are getting their best look ever at the details of that explosion, Cassiopeia A. Space-age tools and methods are allowing them to glimpse never-seen-before details that may change forever the way scientists think about star death, star formation and the distribution of matter in the galaxy. And now, a new image of that dead star has a starring role in First Lady Jill Biden\u2019s digital Advent calendar this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The James Webb Space Telescope hosts an array of tools that includes the NIRCam, a telescope that looks at light in the near-infrared wavelengths. Astronomers use&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/webbtelescope.org\/contents\/news-releases\/2023\/news-2023-149\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NIRCam observations to map out matter in those wavelengths and assign colors to make previously unseen features visible<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dan Milisavljevic is an astronomer and an expert on star explosions. An associate professor of physics and astronomy&nbsp;in Purdue University\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/science\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">College of Science<\/a>, Milisavljevic (pronounced mili-sahv-la-vich) leads the project team whose data contributed to the staggeringly detailed new image.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve never had this kind of look at an exploded star before,\u201d Milisavljevic said. \u201cSupernovae are primary drivers of cosmological evolution. The energies, their chemical abundances \u2014 there is so much that depends on our understanding of supernovae. This is the closest look we\u2019ve had at a supernova in our galaxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n    <div  class=\"purdue-home-quick-links-static \">\n        <div class=\"tagged-header-container\">\n\n            <h2 class=\"tagged-header\"><span>Additional Information<\/span><\/h2>\n        \n        <\/div>\n\n       <ul class=\"quick-links-content\">\n                                        <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/releases\/2023\/Q2\/new-webb-telescope-image-reveals-wonders-beauty-secrets-of-star-structure-and-building-blocks-of-life.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    New Webb telescope image reveals wonders, beauty, secrets of star structure and building blocks of life                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/releases\/2022\/Q3\/purdue-astronomer-speechless-in-the-face-of-new-images-from-space-telescope.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    Purdue astronomer speechless in the face of new images from space telescope                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/releases\/2023\/Q2\/uncovering-a-stars-demise-supermassive-black-hole-tears-apart-a-giant-star-in-a-display-brighter-more-energetic-and-longer-lasting-than-any-observed-before.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    Uncovering a star\u2019s demise: Supermassive black hole tears apart a giant star in a display brighter, more energetic and longer-lasting than any observed before                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                            <\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/milisavljevic-telescopeLO.jpg\" alt=\"Danny Milisavljevic\u2019s by a telescope.\" class=\"wp-image-1773\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/milisavljevic-telescopeLO.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/milisavljevic-telescopeLO-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/milisavljevic-telescopeLO-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Danny Milisavljevic, assistant professor of physics and astronomy in Purdue University\u2019s College of Science, is leading a research team using the world\u2019s most powerful telescope, launching later this month. (Purdue University photo\/Rebecca McElhoe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Milisavljevic leads a team of nearly 40 scientists and researchers from more than 30 institutions \u2014&nbsp;including Harvard, Princeton and Johns Hopkins universities, as well as Los Alamos National Laboratory and the SETI Institute \u2014&nbsp;in studying Cassiopeia A, one of the more puzzling objects in the galaxy. Cassiopeia A comprises the remnants of a supernova explosion and has at its heart a neutron star that doesn\u2019t behave the way scientists think neutron stars ought to behave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s staggering,\u201d Milisavljevic said. \u201cSome features have popped up that are completely new \u2014 that will change the way we think about stellar life cycles. And other features that have been studied disappear in the new NIRcam image. Why? And what does that mean for our understanding of how stars form and die?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before the James Webb Space Telescope started studying the heavens in 2022, the Hubble Space Telescope allowed humans to see farther into space and deeper into time. The James Webb Space Telescope is bigger, more complex and orbits farther from the Earth than Hubble, allowing it unprecedented opportunities for interstellar sleuthing. The James Webb Space Telescope looks even farther into space and time and with an unprecedented range of wavelengths and strength of definition. The knowledge it uncovers may help scientists take the next small steps out into the universe \u2014 and discern where humans want to go next and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe images don\u2019t just look better \u2014 they\u2019re different,\u201d Milisavljevic said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just higher resolution, but the James Webb Space Telescope is looking at infrared emissions sensitive to a variety of different elements and molecules that Hubble cannot access. It\u2019s exciting to look at the promise of the James Webb Space Telescope coming true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. &mdash; Ten thousand years ago, a star exploded. Now scientists are getting their best look ever at the details of that explosion, Cassiopeia A. Space-age tools and methods are allowing them to glimpse never-seen-before details that may<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,524],"tags":[],"department":[32],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[66],"coauthors":[77],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-excellence","category-space","department-science","source-purdue-news","purdue_today_topic-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13242,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions\/13242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}