Astronomers have produced the cleanest X-ray view yet of Sgr A East, a supernova remnant near our galaxy’s centre. The work was published in The Astrophysical Journal. It uses data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The galactic centre is crowded. X-rays from the remnant overlap with light from hot massive stars and many faint double-star systems. A team led by Mayura Balakrishnan used a special technique called pGMCA to separate the three main sources for the first time.

The new composite image shows lower-energy X-rays in green and high-energy ones in light blue. Radio data from the Very Large Array appears in red. Submillimeter data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope appears in dark blue.

The analysis also mapped elements inside the remnant, including iron, sulfur, argon and calcium. Iron sits at the centre. The remnant has expanded into and heated the gas around the supermassive black hole Sgr A*. It is about 10,000 years old. The maps may reveal which star exploded and whether the blast triggered past outbursts from the black hole.