RCW 103 Supernova Remnant

The RCW catalogue was prepared by Alex Rodgers, Colin Campbell, and John Whiteoak, working at Mount Stromlo observatory under the direction of Dutch-American astronomer Bart Bok. The RCW catalog is largely an expansion of Colin Gum's 1955 catalog.

RCW 103 is a 2000-year-old supernova remnant, pictured here using narrowband filters with its beautiful wispy tangled web of dust and gas.

The star that caused this explosion was a star 8-10 times the size of our own sun and is now a neutron star not visible in visible wavelengths in this image.

Recent Chandra X-Ray Observatory observations show a blue dot at the center which is interpreted as the neutron star formed in the explosion. This neutron star is quite special as it spins quite slow in caparison to most.

 Here is a nice full description form Chandra:

https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/rcw103/

SWOS: Mark Hanson, Steve Mazlin, Rex Parker, Stuart Forman

Telescope1: 24" Planewave CDK f6.5 and L600 Mount, Camera SBIG 16803 Location: SWOS, El Sauce Chile

Enjoy,

Mark Hanson

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