October 1, 2008--Beauty born in a blast, Cassiopeia A is the hot remnant of a supernova.

The light from this gas cloud, revealed by data from NASA's Spitzer, Hubble, and Chandra observatories, echoes the first moments of a star's explosion some 11,000 years ago.

The supernova was a hundred billion times brighter than the sun.

Chandra's X-rays (green and blue) reveal ten-million-degree Celsius gasses created when ejecta collided with surrounding dust and gas at ten million miles per hour.

--Brian Handwerk