Peering Into The Heart of Darkness - The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Description: This Chandra image of Sgr A* and the region around it was based on almost two weeks of observing time. A theoretical model based on these deep data has been produced to help explain why this giant black hole seems to consume so little material. Scientists have also used these data to probe supernova remnants and lobes of hot gas extending away from the black hole. The image also contains several mysterious X-ray filaments.
Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray
Date: 2010
Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2010/sgra/
Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Gift line: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K. Baganoff et al.
Accession number: sgra_444
Peering Into The Heart of Darkness - The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Description: This Chandra image of Sgr A* and the region around it was based on almost two weeks of observing time. A theoretical model based on these deep data has been produced to help explain why this giant black hole seems to consume so little material. Scientists have also used these data to probe supernova remnants and lobes of hot gas extending away from the black hole. The image also contains several mysterious X-ray filaments.
Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray
Date: 2010
Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2010/sgra/
Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Gift line: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K. Baganoff et al.
Accession number: sgra_444