Washington: Scientists have combined data from Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA`s Spitzer Space Telescope, and ground-based facilities to build a 3D model of the 300-year old Cassiopeia A supernova that blew a massive star apart, and sent the debris flying at a velocity of millions of miles per hour.

To coincide with Cas A being featured in this new 3D effort, a specially-processed version of Chandra`s data of this supernova remnant is also being released. This new image shows with better clarity the appearance of Cas A in different energy bands, which will aid astronomers in their efforts to reconstruct details of the supernova process such as the size of the star, its chemical makeup, and the explosion mechanism.

The color scheme used in this image is the following: low-energy X-rays are red, medium-energy ones are green, and the highest-energy X-rays detected by Chandra are colored blue. Cas A is the only astronomical object to be featured in the new Smithsonian 3D project.