Brilliant Demise

This composite image shows Cassiopeia A, the shattered remains of a star that exploded as a supernova around the year 1680 (as seen from Earth). The false-color image combines visible light from Hubble Space Telescope (gold), infrared from Spitzer Space Telescope (red), and Chandra X-Ray Observatory (blue and green). The different filaments and structures are debris from the explosion, which is expanding into space at millions of miles per hour. The cloud contains a variety of chemical elements forged in the star's core or in its violent explosion. Some of that material could someday be incorporated into new stars or planets. [NASA/JPL/Caltech]