A Kaleidoscope of color

Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is shown in its full glory in this composite of images taken by three great observatories. This 300- year-old remnant created by the supernova explosion of the massive star is located about 11,000 light-years away from Earth.

The different colors in this image identify details provided by each observatory. This gives astronomers a holistic view of Cas A :
🔴Red - Infrared data from Spitzer Space Telescope reveals warm dust in the outer shell with temperatures of about 10 degrees Celsius ( 50 degrees Fahrenheit)
🟡Yellow- Optical data from NASAHubble displays filamentory structure of warm gasses about 10,000 degrees Celsius.
🟢🔵Green & Blue- X-Ray data NASAChandraXray captures hot gassses at about 10 million degrees Celsius. This hot gas was likely created when ejected material from the supernova smashed into surrounding gas and dust at speeds of about 10 million miles per hour!

A comparison of images should help astronomers better determine whether most of the dust in the supernova remnant came from the massive star before it exploded, or from the rapidly expanding supernova ejecta.