Supernova Shock Wave

The investigations team analyzed X-ray signals that Chandra detected starting November 3, 2010. At the time, a galaxy located around 160 million light-years away, called UGC 5189A, produced a luminous supernova event.
Supernovae occur when massive stars at least several times heavier than the Sun reach the end of their burning cycle, and can no longer sustain nuclear fusion. They shed the outer layers of their atmospheres in massive explosions.
The team included scientists from Royal Military College of Canada, University of Virginia, Institute of Astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences, Stockholm University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

“In the first Chandra observation of SN 2010jl, the X-rays from the explosion's blast wave were strongly absorbed by a cocoon of dense gas around the supernova. This cocoon was formed by gas blown away from the massive star before it exploded,” a NASA press release accompanying the study says.

“In the second observation taken almost a year later, there is much less absorption of X-ray emission, indicating that the blast wave from the explosion has broken out of the surrounding cocoon,” the statement adds.

“The Chandra data show that the gas emitting the X-rays has a very high temperature – greater than 100 million degrees Kelvin – strong evidence that it has been heated by the supernova blast wave,” the document concludes.