X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/U. Manitoba/C. Treyturik, (XMM-Newton) ESA/C. Treyturik; Optical: (Pan-STARRS) NOIRLab/MDM/Dartmouth/R. Fesen; Infrared: (WISE) NASA/JPL/Caltech; Image Processing: Univ. of Manitoba/Gilles Ferrand and Jayanne English · Public domain in the United States (solely created by NASA; NASA material not protected by copyright unless noted), verified via the Wikimedia Commons file description page
EDUCATIONAL Space & Astronomy
The 845-Year-Old Firework: What Pa 30 Teaches Us About Supernovas That Leave Survivors
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on October 7, 2026 featured Pa 30, the remnant of the "guest star" recorded for 185 days in the year 1181. Classified as a rare Type Iax supernova, likely from the merger of two white dwarfs, the remnant holds a surviving, extremely hot central star and unexplained pearl-like knots along radial filaments. This explainer separates what astronomers measure from what they only hypothesize.