Ancient supernova debris spotted near the Milky Way’s black hole

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, with help from XMM-Newton, detected a bright X-ray blob near the Milky Way’s center—likely the wreckage of a supernova that exploded about 1,700 years ago and is the closest such debris to Sagittarius A*. The debris lies in a bubble of ionized gas dubbed Sagittarius C and is seen moving at roughly 2 million mph. While an SN origin is favored, some uncertainty remains whether the emission could be from gas heated by nearby massive stars. The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, highlights how such debris contributes to chemical enrichment and the birth of future stars and planets.