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NGC 2146 is a spiral galaxy with one of its dusty arms blocking the view of the galaxy’s center from Earth’s perspective. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show double star systems and hot gas that is being driven away from the galaxy by supernova explosions and winds from giant stars.
X-rays from Chandra show as pink and purple, while optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Las Cumbres Observatory in Chile and infrared data from NSF’s Kitt Peak are in red, green, and blue.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Infrared: NSF/NOAO/KPNO; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
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Dazzling ✨
What you’re seeing is a 98-light-year-wide chunk of star factory. This new image of N79, a giant region of star formation located about 160,000 light-years from Earth, combines observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and @NASAWebb.
Visual Description:
Shafts of golden light bursting out of a central glowing orb cut through misty clouds in shades of purples, pinks, yellows, and blues.
X-ray, Chandra: NASA/CXC/Ohio State Univ/T. Webb et al.;
Infrared, Webb: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI;
Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
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This week in 1999, space shuttle Columbia, mission STS-93, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on a four-day mission to deliver the Chandra X-ray Observatory to low-Earth orbit. Chandra was then be propelled to an orbit of 44,759 miles in altitude using a two-stage Inertial Upper Stage. This was the first mission in shuttle history to be commanded by a woman, astronaut Eileen Collins. Here, Chandra's High Resolution Camera is integrated with the High Resolution Mirror Assembly in the 24-foot vacuum chamber at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center's X-ray and Cryogenic Facility. Marshall manages the Chandra program. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA's remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA's activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA's history, visit the Marshall History Program's webpage.
Image credit: NASA
E0102-72 is a supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This galaxy is 190,000 light years from Earth. E0102 -72, which is approximately a thousand years old, is believed to have resulted from the explosion of a massive star. Stretching across forty light years of space, the multi-million degree source resembles a flaming cosmic wheel.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
Young stars much less massive than the Sun can unleash a torrent of X-ray radiation that can significantly shorten the lifetime of planet-forming disks surrounding these stars. This result comes from a new study of a group of nearby stars using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes.
Researchers found evidence that intense X-ray radiation produced by some of the young stars in the TW Hya association (TWA), which is about 160 light years from Earth, has destroyed disks of dust and gas surrounding them. These disks are where planets form. The stars are only about 8 million years old, compared to the 4.5-billion-year age of the Sun. Astronomers want to learn more about systems this young because they are at a crucial age for the birth and early development of planets.
Another key difference between the Sun and the stars in the study involves their mass. The TWA stars in the new study weigh between about one tenth to one half the mass of the Sun and also emit less light. Until now, it was unclear whether X-ray radiation from such small, faint stars could affect their planet-forming disks of material. These latest findings suggest that a faint star’s X-ray output may play a crucial role in determining the survival time of its disk.
These results mean that astronomers may have to revisit current ideas on the formation process and early lives of planets around these faint stars.
Using X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton observatory and ROSAT (the ROentgen SATellite), the team looked at the intensity of X-rays produced by a group of stars in the TWA, along with how common their star-forming disks are. They split the stars into two groups to make this comparison. The first group of stars had masses ranging from about one third to one half that of the Sun. The second group contained stars with masses only about one tenth that of the Sun, which included relatively large brown dwarfs, objects that do not have sufficient mass to generate self-sustaining nuclear reactions in their cores.
To read the full article, click here.
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights, click here.
In 2009, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory released a captivating image: a pulsar and its surrounding nebula that is shaped like a hand.
Since then, astronomers have used Chandra and other telescopes to continue to observe this object. Now, new radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), has been combined with Chandra’s X-ray data to provide a fresh view of this exploded star and its environment, to help understand its peculiar properties and shape.
At the center of this new image lies the pulsar B1509-58, a rapidly spinning neutron star that is only about 12 miles in diameter. This tiny object is responsible for producing an intricate nebula (called MSH 15-52) that spans over 150 light-years, or about 900 trillion miles. The nebula, which is produced by energetic particles, resembles a human hand with a palm and extended fingers pointing to the upper right in X-rays.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
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NGC 346 is a young cluster home to thousands of newborn stars. The cluster’s most massive stars send powerful winds and produce intense radiation. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal output from massive stars in the cluster and diffuse emission from a supernova remnant, the glowing debris of an exploded star.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR/Optical: NASA/ESA/HST; UV: NASA/ESA/STScI/Catholic Univ of America; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major, and K. Arcand
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Twenty-six black hole candidates (labeled in the image) - the largest number found in a galaxy outside our own - were discovered in the Milky Way's galactic neighbor, Andromeda. Using over 150 observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory spread over 13 years, researchers identified the bonanza of stellar-mass black holes, that is, those that form from the collapse of a giant star and typically have masses between five and ten times that of the Sun. This 2013 image shows the Chandra view of the central region of Andromeda, also known as M31. It is expected that billions of years in the future, the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide and many more black holes will be created.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/J. Maithil et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/SAO/M. Weiss; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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A new image-processing technique called “X-arithmetic” is allowing astronomers to analyze NASA Chandra’s X-ray data and identify features in the gas of galaxy clusters and groups like never before. By comparing the outcome from the X-arithmetic technique to computer simulations, researchers can classify some of the largest structures in the universe by their nature rather than just their appearance. The researchers applied this technique to 15 galaxy clusters and groups, and this collection shows the central regions of five galaxy clusters in the sample: MS 0735+7421, the Perseus Cluster, M87 in the Virgo Cluster, Abell 2052, and Cygnus A.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/H. McCall
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IC 348 is a star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy. The wispy structures that dominate the image are interstellar material that reflect the light from the cluster’s stars. The point-like sources in data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are young stars in the cluster developing there. X-rays from Chandra are shown in red, green and blue, while the James Webb Space Telesceope's infrared data appears as pink, orange and purple.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
These images, which all include data from Chandra, demonstrate how X-ray astronomy explores all corners of the universe. By combining X-rays from Chandra with other space-based observatories and telescopes on the ground, as many of these images do, astronomers can tackle the biggest questions and investigate long-standing mysteries across the cosmos.
On July 23, 1999, the space shuttle Columbia launched into orbit carrying Chandra, which was then the heaviest payload ever carried by the shuttle. With Commander Eileen Collins at the helm, the astronauts aboard Columbia successfully deployed Chandra into its highly elliptical orbit that takes it nearly one-third of the distance to the Moon.
The center of our Milky Way is blocked by gas and dust in many types of light, but X-rays can penetrate and reveal threads of superheated gas and bursts from our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. X-rays from Chandra (orange, green, blue, and purple); radio image from MeerKAT (lilac)
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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M83, a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, is turned face-on toward Earth. This provides an unfettered view of the entire galaxy that is often impossible with different orientations. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected the explosions of stars, or supernovas, and their aftermath across M83.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/AURA/STScI, Hubble Heritage Team, W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O'Connell (University of Virginia); Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
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Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered the largest and brightest set of rings from X-ray light echoes ever observed. These extraordinary rings, produced by an intense flare from a neutron star, provide astronomers a rare chance to determine how far across the Milky Way galaxy the star is from Earth.
The rings appear as circles around Circinus X-1, a double star system in the plane of our galaxy containing a neutron star, the dense remnant of a massive star pulverized in a supernova explosion. The neutron star is in orbit with another massive star, and is shrouded by thick clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Circinus X-1 is also the source of a surprisingly powerful jet of high-energy particles.
“It’s really hard to get accurate distance measurements in astronomy and we only have a handful of methods,” said Sebastian Heinz of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who led the study. “But just as bats use sonar to triangulate their location, we can use the X-rays from Circinus X-1 to figure out exactly where it is.”
The light echo shows that Circinus X-1 is located about 30,700 light years from Earth, and settles the difference in results published in prior studies. The detection and characterization of the rings required the unique capabilities of Chandra -- the ability to detect fine details combined with sensitivity to faint signals.
Read Full Article here: www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-chandra-captures-x-ray-...
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p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
This 2012 image of the galaxy NGC 3627 shows X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, infrared data from Spitzer Space Telescope, and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope. Astronomers conducted a survey of 62 galaxies - which included NGC 3627 - to study the supermassive black holes at their centers. Among this sample, 37 galaxies with X-ray sources are supermassive black hole candidates, and seven were not previously known. Confirming previous Chandra results, this study finds the fraction of galaxies hosting supermassive black holes is much higher than in optical searches for black holes that are relatively inactive.
Credit: NASA/CXC/Ohio State Univ./C.Grier et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI, ESO/WFI; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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IC 1623 is a system where two galaxies are in the process of merging. As the galaxies collide, they trigger new bursts of star formation that glow dramatically in certain kinds of light. The merging galaxies may also be in the process of forming a supermassive black hole. This image was captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and J. Major
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Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun and largest in the solar system, is known to have X-ray-producing aurora around its poles. Jupiter is seen here in X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) and infrared from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue).
In this composite image of Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun is set against the blackness of space, flanked by neon purple blobs. Here, Jupiter is presented in exceptionally clear focus. More than a dozen bands of swirling gas streak the surface, each a different texture and shade of grey. The gas giant is encircled by a fine, sky-blue ring, the same color as the large storm which swirls on its surface at our lower right. At the top edge of Jupiter, tilted just to our right of center, is a neon purple strip. A similar, smaller line of neon purple can be found at the bottom edge of the planet. Capping the planet’s magnetic poles, these purple strips represent X-ray auroras, created when high-energy particles collide with gas in the planet’s atmosphere. At our right and left, large hazy blobs of neon purple flank Jupiter, some larger than the gas giant itself. Like the auroras, these purple clouds represent X-rays observed by Chandra.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major, S. Wolk
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Astronomers have discovered the largest known cloud of energetic particles surrounding a galaxy cluster — spanning nearly 20 million light-years. The finding challenges long-standing theories about how particles stay energized over time. Instead of being powered by nearby galaxies, this vast region seems to be energized by giant shockwaves and turbulence moving through the hot gas between galaxies.
This new composite image made with X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and purple), radio data from the MeerKAT radio telescope (orange and yellow), and an optical image from PanSTARRS (red, green, and blue) shows PLCK G287.0+32.9. This massive galaxy cluster, located about 5 billion light-years from Earth, was first detected by astronomers in 2011.
Previously, studies in radio waves spotted two bright relics, which are giant shockwaves that lit up the cluster's edges. This new study now reveals that the entire cluster is wrapped in a faint radio glow, nearly 20 times the diameter of the Milky Way. A cloud of energetic particles this large has never previously been observed in any galaxy cluster. The prior record holder, Abell 2255, spans roughly 16.3 million light-years.
This finding provides researchers with a new way to study cosmic magnetic fields — one of the major unanswered questions in astrophysics — that could help scientists understand how magnetic fields shape the Universe on the largest scales.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Rajpurohit et al.; Optical: PanSTARRS; Radio: SARAO/MeerKAT; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents a visually striking collection of interstellar gas and dust. Named RCW 7, the nebula is located just over 5,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Puppis.
Nebulae are areas rich in the raw material needed to form new stars. Under the influence of gravity, parts of these molecular clouds collapse until they coalesce into very young, developing stars, called protostars, which are still surrounded by spinning discs of leftover gas and dust. The protostars forming in RCW 7 are particularly massive, giving off strongly ionizing radiation and fierce stellar winds that transformed the nebula into a H II region.
H II regions are filled with hydrogen ions — H I refers to a normal hydrogen atom, while H II is hydrogen that lost its electron making it an ion. Ultraviolet radiation from the massive protostars excites the hydrogen in the nebula, causing it to emit light that gives this nebula its soft pinkish glow.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Tan (Chal
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Astronomers have caught a black hole hurling hot material into space at close to the speed of light. This flare-up was captured in a new movie from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The black hole and its companion star make up a system called MAXI J1820+070, located in our Galaxy about 10,000 light years from Earth. The black hole in MAXI J1820+070 has a mass about eight times that of the Sun, identifying it as a so-called stellar-mass black hole, formed by the destruction of a massive star. (This is in contrast to supermassive black holes that contain millions or billions of times the Sun's mass.)
The companion star orbiting the black hole has about half the mass of the Sun. The black hole's strong gravity pulls material away from the companion star into an X-ray emitting disk surrounding the black hole.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Université de Paris/M. Espinasse et al.; Optical/IR:PanSTARRS
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This 2013 composite image of Kepler's supernova remnant shows Spitzer infrared emission in pink and Chandra X-ray emission from iron in blue. The infrared emission is very similar in shape and location to X-ray emission (not shown here) from material that was expelled by the giant star companion to the white dwarf before the latter exploded. This material forms a disk around the center of the explosion as shown in the labeled version. This composite figure also shows a remarkably large and puzzling concentration of iron on the left side of the center of the remnant but not the right. The authors speculate that the cause of this asymmetry might be the "shadow" in iron that was cast by the companion star, which blocked the ejection of material. Previously, theoretical work has suggested this shadowing is possible for Type Ia supernova remnants.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M.Burkey et al; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Since antiquity, wreaths have symbolized the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It is fitting then that one of the best places for astronomers to learn more about the stellar lifecycle resembles a giant holiday wreath itself.
The star cluster NGC 602 lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, about 200,000 light-years from Earth. The stars in NGC 602 have fewer heavier elements compared to the Sun and most of the rest of the galaxy. Instead, the conditions within NGC 602 mimic those for stars found billions of years ago when the universe was much younger.
This new image combines data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with a previously released image from the agency's James Webb Space Telescope. The dark ring-like outline of the wreath seen in Webb data (represented as orange, yellow, green, and blue) is made up of dense clouds of filled dust.
Meanwhile, X-rays from Chandra (red) show young, massive stars that are illuminating the wreath, sending high-energy light into interstellar space. These X-rays are powered by winds flowing from the young, massive stars that are sprinkled throughout the cluster. The extended cloud in the Chandra data likely comes from the overlapping X-ray glow of thousands of young, low-mass stars in the cluster.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC; Infrared: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeilder, E.Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand
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This 2003 composite X-ray (blue)/optical (orange) image of M86 shows gas being swept out of the galaxy to form a long tail more than 200,000 light years in length. Located in the Virgo galaxy cluster, this enormous elliptical galaxy is moving at about 3 million miles per hour through diffuse hot gas that pervades the cluster. The supersonic motion of M86 produces pressure that is stripping gas from the galaxy and forming the spectacular tail.
M86 has been pulled into the Virgo galaxy cluster and accelerated to a high speed by the enormous combined gravity of dark matter, hot gas, and hundreds of galaxies that comprise the cluster. The infall of the galaxy into the cluster is an example of the process by which galaxy groups and galaxy clusters form over the course of billions of years.
The galaxy is no longer an "island universe" with an independent existence. It has been captured and its gas is being swept away to mix with the gas of the cluster, leaving an essentially gas-free galaxy orbiting the center of the cluster along with hundreds of other galaxies.
M86 is an unusual galaxy in that it is one of a small number of galaxies that are moving toward Earth, rather than receding with the general expansion of the Universe. This expansion is carrying the Virgo cluster away from us at a speed of about 2 million miles per hour, but M86 is falling into the Virgo cluster from the far side of the cluster, giving it a net velocity of about one million miles per hour toward Earth.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/C. Jones, W. Forman, & S. Murray. Optical: Pal.Obs. DSS
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On July 23, 1999, the Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center carrying the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In the two decades that have passed, Chandra’s powerful and unique X-ray eyes have contributed to a revolution in our understanding of the cosmos.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is commemorating its 20th anniversary with an assembly of new images. These images represent the breadth of Chandra’s exploration, demonstrating the variety of objects it studies as well as how X-rays complement the data collected in other types of light.
The central region of our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains an exotic collection of objects, including a supermassive black hole weighing about 4 million times the mass of the Sun (called Sagittarius A*), clouds of gas at temperatures of millions of degrees, neutron stars and white dwarf stars tearing material from companion stars and beautiful tendrils of radio emission.
The region around Sagittarius A* is shown in this new composite image with Chandra data (green and blue) combined with radio data (red) from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, which will eventually become part of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA).
Image credit: X-Ray:NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.; Radio:NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT
At the center of the Centaurus A galaxy is a supermassive black hole that sends enormous jets out into space, which are detected by Chandra. X-rays from Chandra (red, green, blue) and IXPE (red, green, and blue); optical from ESO/MPG 2.2m (red, green, and blue)
Visual Description:
In this composite image, a supermassive black hole at the center of the Centaurus A galaxy shoots an enormous jet of particles into a star-packed sky. Here, Centaurus A resembles an inky purple cloud sitting atop a translucent red cloud. At the heart of the combined cloud structure is the black hole, a brilliant white dot that lights the clouds from within. The jet emerges from this dot, a speckled white and purple beam shooting toward our upper left. Surrounding the entire galaxy is a faint translucent blue bubble shape, which is most pronounced at our lower right. This bubble was created by the jets from the black hole. Both the jets and the bubble are detected by Chandra.
Credit: X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/SAO, (IXPE) NASA/MSFC; Optical: ESO; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand, J. Major, and J. Schmidt
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NGC 1850 is a bright, double star cluster that lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way. It contains a black hole with a mass of about 11 Suns, and a companion star. No clear detection of X-rays with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory implies that the black hole is not quickly pulling material away from its companion. The X-rays are from Chandra (magenta), while the optical are from Hubble Space Telescope (red, yellow, green, cyan, blue) and the infrared from Spitzer Space Telescope (red)
This composite image features a double star cluster, a blue-tinted cloud, and several neon purple dots. This double cluster is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way. The bright, golden stars in the larger cluster fill the upper center of the image. The other cluster is much smaller and coincides with one of the neon purple circles located slightly above and to the right of the image’s center. This and the other purple circles are X-ray sources detected with Chandra. To our left of the combined cluster is a vertical streak of blue-tinted cloud. Extending beyond the upper and lower edges of the image, this section of cloud resembles wafting smoke from a cigarette.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major, S. Wolk
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A new collection of images features data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. These objects have been observed in invisible light — including X-rays, infrared, and radio — by some of the most powerful telescopes. Each layer represents data that has been assigned colors that the human eye can perceive, allowing us to explore these cosmic entities.
Here is an image of the Galactic Center, which is about 26,000 light-years from Earth. Telescopes like Chandra X-ray Observatory (orange, green, blue, purple) allow us to visit virtually. The center of the Milky Way contains a supermassive black hole, superheated clouds of gas, massive stars, neutron stars, and much more.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO, JPL-Caltech, MSFC, STScI, ESA/CSA, SDSS, ESO
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This 2009 image of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101) is a composite of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The colors correspond to the following wavelengths: The X-rays detected by Chandra are colored blue. Sources of X-rays include million-degree gas, the debris from exploded stars, and material zooming around black holes and neutron stars. The red color shows Spitzer's view in infrared light. It highlights the heat emitted by dust lanes in the galaxy where stars can form. Finally, the yellow coloring is visible light data from Hubble. Most of this light comes from stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes.
M101 is a face-on spiral galaxy about 22 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is similar to the Milky Way galaxy in many ways, but is larger. The new "Great Observatories" composite image of M101 was distributed to over 100 planetariums, museums, nature centers, and schools across the country in conjunction with Galileo's birthday on February 15. The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and has been designated the International Year of Astronomy to celebrate this historic anniversary.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/K.Kuntz et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/JHU/K. Kuntz et al; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/K. Gordon
This deep Chandra X-ray Observatory image from 2008shows the supernova remnant Kes 75, located almost 20,000 light years away. The explosion of a massive star created the supernova remnant, along with a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star.
The low energy X-rays are colored red in this image and the high energy X-rays are colored blue. The pulsar is the bright spot near the center of the image. The rapid rotation and strong magnetic field of the pulsar have generated a wind of energetic matter and antimatter particles that rush out at near the speed of light. This pulsar wind has created a large, magnetized bubble of high-energy particles called a pulsar wind nebulae, seen as the blue region surrounding the pulsar.
The magnetic field of the pulsar in Kes 75 is thought to be more powerful than most pulsars, but less powerful than magnetars, a class of neutron star with the most powerful magnetic fields known in the Universe. Scientists are seeking to understand the relationship between these two classes of object.
This year, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates its 20th year in space exploring the extreme universe.
Credit: NASA/CXC/GSFC/F.P.Gavriil et al.
This 2000 Chandra X-ray image shows the inner portion of the Circinus Galaxy, with north at the top of the image and east to the left. In terms of X-ray energies, red represents low energy, green intermediate and blue the highest observed energies. The emission is resolved into a number of distinct components, many of which are associated with a central black hole. A bright, compact emission source is present at the center of the image. That nuclear source is surrounded by a diffuse X-ray halo that extends out several hundred light years. The X-rays directly to the northwest of the nucleus appear red, indicating predominantly soft energies, while the X-rays to the southeast are blue, indicating only hard energies.
Because low X-ray energies are absorbed by gas more easily than higher energies, the sharp contrast suggests that the red emission to the northwest originates from the near side of the disk of the Circinus Galaxy. And, the blue emission is more highly absorbed and must come from the gas within the disk or on the far side. Such geometry corresponds to the disk of the galaxy as seen in optical and radio images. A bright, soft X-ray plume of emission extends approximately 1,200 light years (380 parsecs) to the northwest and coincides with an optical region containing gas ionized by the nucleus. There is a very strong correlation between the X-ray emission and the high-excitation ionized gas seen in emission-line images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. The X-ray image was made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) from 67,000 seconds of exposure time on June 6-7, 2000.
Image credit: NASA/Penn State/F.Bauer et al.
Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to show that, multiple eruptions from a supermassive black hole over 50 million years have rearranged the cosmic landscape at the center of a group of galaxies.
Scientists discovered this history of black hole eruptions by studying NGC 5813, a group of galaxies about 105 million light years from Earth. These Chandra observations are the longest ever obtained of a galaxy group, lasting for just over a week. The Chandra data are shown in this new composite image where the X-rays from Chandra (purple) have been combined with visible light data (red, green and blue).
Galaxy groups are like their larger cousins, galaxy clusters, but instead of containing hundreds or even thousands of galaxies like clusters do, galaxy groups are typically comprised of 50 or fewer galaxies. Like galaxy clusters, groups of galaxies are enveloped by giant amounts of hot gas that emit X-rays.
Read Full Article: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/chandra-finds-evidence...
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Editor's Note: This is an archive image from 2006.
Images from three of NASA's Great Observatories were combined to create this spectacular, multiwavelength view of the starburst galaxy M82. Optical light from stars (yellow-green/Hubble Space Telescope) shows the disk of a modest-sized, apparently normal galaxy.
Another Hubble observation designed to image 10,000 degree Celsius hydrogen gas (orange) reveals a startlingly different picture of matter blasting out of the galaxy. The Spitzer Space Telescope infrared image (red) shows that cool gas and dust are also being ejected. Chandra's X-ray image (blue) reveals gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by the violent outflow. The eruption can be traced back to the central regions of the galaxy where stars are forming at a furious rate, some 10 times faster than in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Many of these newly formed stars are very massive and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. Vigorous mass loss from these stars before they explode, and the heat generated by the supernovas drive the gas out of the galaxy at millions of miles per hour. It is thought that the expulsion of matter from a galaxy during bursts of star formation is one of the main ways of spreading elements like carbon and oxygen throughout the universe.
The burst of star formation in M82 is thought to have been initiated by shock waves generated in a close encounter with a large nearby galaxy, M81, about 100 million years ago. These shock waves triggered the collapse of giant clouds of dust and gas in M82. In another 100 million years or so, most of the gas and dust will have been used to form stars, or blown out of the galaxy, so the starburst will subside.
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/D.Strickland; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of AZ/C. Engelbracht
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/m82/
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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First X-rays from Uranus Discovered
Astronomers have detected X-rays from Uranus for the first time, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This result may help scientists learn more about this enigmatic ice giant planet in our solar system.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has two sets of rings around its equator. The planet, which has four times the diameter of Earth, rotates on its side, making it different from all other planets in the solar system. Since Voyager 2 was the only spacecraft to ever fly by Uranus, astronomers currently rely on telescopes much closer to Earth, like Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope, to learn about this distant and cold planet that is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium.
In the new study, researchers used Chandra observations taken in Uranus in 2002 and then again in 2017. They saw a clear detection of X-rays from the first observation, just analyzed recently, and a possible flare of X-rays in those obtained fifteen years later. The main graphic shows a Chandra X-ray image of Uranus from 2002 (in pink) superimposed on an optical image from the Keck-I Telescope obtained in a separate study in 2004. The latter shows the planet at approximately the same orientation as it was during the 2002 Chandra observations.
What could cause Uranus to emit X-rays? The answer: mainly the Sun. Astronomers have observed that both Jupiter and Saturn scatter X-ray light given off by the Sun, similar to how Earth’s atmosphere scatters the Sun’s light. While the authors of the new Uranus study initially expected that most of the X-rays detected would also be from scattering, there are tantalizing hints that at least one other source of X-rays is present. If further observations confirm this, it could have intriguing implications for understanding Uranus.
One possibility is that the rings of Uranus are producing X-rays themselves, which is the case for Saturn’s rings. Uranus is surrounded by charged particles such as electrons and protons in its nearby space environment. If these energetic particles collide with the rings, they could cause the rings to glow in X-rays. Another possibility is that at least some of the X-rays come from auroras on Uranus, a phenomenon that has previously been observed on this planet at other wavelengths.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/University College London/W. Dunn et al; Optical: W.M. Keck Observatory
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A new version of the “Christmas tree cluster” is now available. Like NGC 602, NGC 2264 is a cluster of young stars between one and five million years old. (For comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old — about 1,000 times older.) In this image of NGC 2264, which is much closer than NGC 602 at a distance of about 2,500 light-years from Earth, data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (red, purple, blue, and white) has been combined with optical data (green and violet) captured from by astrophotographer Michael Clow from his telescope in Arizona in November 2024.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand
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A new sonification of another famous black hole is being released. Studied by scientists for decades, the black hole in Messier 87, or M87, gained celebrity status in science after the first release from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project in 2019. This new sonification does not feature the EHT data, but rather looks at data from other telescopes that observed M87 on much wider scales at roughly the same time. The image in visual form contains three panels that are, from top to bottom, X-rays from Chandra, optical light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and radio waves from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile. The brightest region on the left of the image is where the black hole is found, and the structure to the upper right is a jet produced by the black hole. The jet is produced by material falling onto the black hole. The sonification scans across the three-tiered image from left to right, with each wavelength mapped to a different range of audible tones. Radio waves are mapped to the lowest tones, optical data to medium tones, and X-rays detected by Chandra to the highest tones. The brightest part of the image corresponds to the loudest portion of the sonification, which is where astronomers find the 6.5-billion solar mass black hole that EHT imaged.
Credit: X-ray (Chandra): NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical (Hubble): NASA/ESA/STScI; Radio (ALMA): ESO/NAOJ/NRAO; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its launch, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.
These images, which all include data from Chandra, demonstrate how X-ray astronomy explores all corners of the universe. By combining X-rays from Chandra with other space-based observatories and telescopes on the ground, as many of these images do, astronomers can tackle the biggest questions and investigate long-standing mysteries across the cosmos.
On July 23, 1999, the space shuttle Columbia launched into orbit carrying Chandra, which was then the heaviest payload ever carried by the shuttle. With Commander Eileen Collins at the helm, the astronauts aboard Columbia successfully deployed Chandra into its highly elliptical orbit that takes it nearly one-third of the distance to the Moon.
This image shows the region of star formation that contains the Pillars of Creation, which was made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope. Chandra detects X-rays from young stars in the region, including one embedded in a pillar. X-rays from Chandra (red and blue); infrared image from Webb (red, green, and blue)
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
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As we celebrate #NASA60th, we take a look back on some of our favorite images captured over the years by @NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, managed by #NASAMarshall.
Image credit: NASA
This 2011 image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows Abell 2052 in X-ray light. A huge spiral structure in the hot gas - spanning almost a million light years - is seen around the outside of the image. This spiral was created when a small cluster of galaxies smashed into a larger one that surrounds the central elliptical galaxy. The collision caused the hot gas in the cluster to be "sloshed" back and forth, similar to wine sloshing in a glass that was jerked sideways. This sloshing has important effects including impacting how the giant elliptical galaxy and its supermassive black hole grow.
Credit: X-ray: X-ray: NASA/CXC/BU/E.Blanton
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New observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have captured a rare cosmic event: two galaxy clusters have collided and are now poised to head back for another swipe at each other.
Galaxy clusters are some of the largest structures in the Universe. Held together by gravity, they are monster-sized collections of hundreds or thousands of individual galaxies, massive amounts of superheated gas, and invisible dark matter.
The galaxy cluster PSZ2 G181.06+48.47 (PSZ2 G181 for short) is about 2.8 billion light-years from Earth. Previously, radio observations from the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR), an antenna network in the Netherlands, spotted parentheses-shaped structures on the outside of the system. In this new composite image, X-rays from Chandra (purple) and ESA’s XMM-Newton (blue) have been combined with LOFAR data (red) and an optical image from Pan-STARRs of the stars in the field of view.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/Stroe, A. et al.; Optical: PanSTARRS; Radio: ASTRON/LOFAR; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star forming region called 30 Doradus.
By combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and green) with optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (yellow) and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (orange), this stellar arrangement comes alive.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL-CalTech/SST; Optical: NASA/STScI/HST; Radio: ESO/NAOJ/NRAO/ALMA; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, N. Wolk, K. Arcand
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Hello darkness my old friend…
What you are (not) seeing, highlighted in blue, is dark matter. Webb was used to precisely map out the dark matter that is part of the makeup of two colliding galaxy clusters, with help from @NASAChandraXray. Webb captured more extremely faint galaxies in the Bullet Cluster than ever seen before (as well as foreground stars), allowing scientists to accurately determine the mass of the cluster.
Chandra data shows the hot, X-ray-emitting gas present between the two galaxy clusters (highlighted in pink). As these two galaxy clusters collided, this gas was dragged out and left behind. Webb observations show that the dark matter (in blue) still lines up with the galaxies and was not dragged away.
Normally galaxies consist of gas, dust, stars, and dark matter, all combined, even when the galaxies are part of a cluster. Observing this separation between the gas and dark matter is unusual.
While we cannot see dark matter because it does not emit light, it has mass and gravitational influence on light we can see. It can act like a lens, magnifying and warping objects behind it. Imagine dark matter as water so clear you can’t see it unless the wind ripples it. The ripples will distort the shapes of any pebbles below its surface. Likewise, dark matter distorts the shapes of distant background galaxies. We can’t see it, but we see its effects.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, CXC
Science credit: James Jee (Yonsei University, UC Davis), Sangjun Cha (Yonsei University), Kyle Finner (Caltech/IPAC)
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This 2012 image shows a superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light years from Earth. Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44. The massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas. The winds and supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show hot regions created by these winds and shocks.
Credit: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m)
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Astronomers have used gravitational lensing to obtain an unprecedented look at a black hole system in the early Universe. An artist's illustration shows how the X-ray light from one of the objects on the left (purple) has been warped by the gravity of an intervening galaxy to produce two sources detected in the Chandra image (dashed square on the right). The light from the fainter object (blue) has been amplified by the galaxy to be as much as 300 times brighter than it would have been without the lensing. The Chandra X-ray image is also shown in the second figure. The two objects are either two growing supermassive black holes, or one black hole and a jet.
Image credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss; X-ray Image (inset): NASA/CXC/SAO/D. Schwartz et al.
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This image shows central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 4631 as seen edge-on from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. The Chandra data (shown in blue and purple) provide the first unambiguous evidence for a halo of hot gas surrounding a galaxy that is very similar to our Milky Way. The structure across the middle of the image and the extended faint filaments (shown in orange) represent the observation from Hubble that reveals giant bursting bubbles created by clusters of massive stars. Scientists have debated for over 40 years whether the Milky Way has an extended corona, or halo, of hot gas. Observations of NGC 4631 and similar galaxies provide astronomers with an important tool in the understanding our own galactic environment.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/D.Wang et al., Optical: NASA/HST/D.Wang et al.
More about Chandra's 20th Anniversary
The Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 (M31), is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way at a distance of about 2.5 million light-years. Astronomers use Andromeda to understand the structure and evolution of our own spiral, which is much harder to do since Earth is embedded inside the Milky Way.
The galaxy M31 has played an important role in many aspects of astrophysics, but particularly in the discovery of dark matter. In the 1960s, astronomer Vera Rubin and her colleagues studied M31 and determined that there was some unseen matter in the galaxy that was affecting how the galaxy and its spiral arms rotated. This unknown material was named “dark matter.” Its nature remains one of the biggest open questions in astrophysics today, one which NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is designed to help answer.
This new image of M31 is released in tribute to the groundbreaking legacy of Dr. Vera Rubin, whose observations transformed our understanding of the universe.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/UMass/Z. Li & Q.D. Wang, ESA/XMM-Newton; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE, Spitzer, NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Gordon (U. Az), ESA/Herschel, ESA/Planck, NASA/IRAS, NASA/COBE; Radio: NSF/GBT/WSRT/IRAM/C. Clark (STScI); Ultraviolet: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GALEX; Optical: Andromeda, Unexpected © Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner, Yann Sainty & J. Sahner, T. Kottary. Composite image processing: L. Frattare, K. Arcand, J.Major
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This Chandra X-ray Observatory image from 2008 shows the debris of a massive star explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth. The supernova remnant (SNR) shown here, N132D, is the brightest in the Magellanic clouds, and belongs to a rare class of oxygen-rich remnants. Most of the oxygen that we breathe on Earth is thought to have come from explosions similar to this one.
The colors in this image show low energy X-rays (red), intermediate energy X-rays (green) and high energy X-rays (blue). Substantial amounts of oxygen are detected in this image, particularly in the green regions near the center of the image. The location of these oxygen-rich areas, detected in the Chandra image, is generally well matched with the oxygen-rich areas detected in Hubble Space Telescope images (not shown here). However, the expanding, ellipse-shaped shell of oxygen seen in N132D is not seen in either G292.0+1.8 or Puppis A, two oxygen-rich SNRs in the galaxy with similar ages to N132D (about 3,000 years, ten times older than Cas A). The origin of this shell is unknown, but it might have been created by a `nickel bubble' shortly after the supernova explosion, caused by radioactive energy input from nickel that was created by the explosion. The existence of such bubbles is predicted by theoretical work.
The ultimate goal of these observations is to constrain the mass of the star that exploded and to learn more about how massive stars explode and spread heavy elements like oxygen into surrounding space.
This year, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates its 20th year in space exploring the extreme universe.
Credit: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.J.Borkowski et al.
The Antennae galaxies are a pair of colliding galaxies about 62 million light years from Earth. These images show X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory The X-ray image shows huge clouds of hot, interstellar gas that have been injected with rich deposits of elements from supernova explosions. This enriched gas, which includes elements such as oxygen, iron, magnesium and silicon, will be incorporated into new generations of stars and planets. The bright, point-like sources in the image are produced by material falling onto black holes and neutron stars that are remnants of the massive stars.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.DePasquale
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A series of 2003 Chandra observations of the spiral galaxy NGC 1637 provided a dramatic view of a violent, restless nature that belies its serene optical image. Over a span of 21 months, intense neutron star and black hole X-ray sources flashed on and off, giving the galaxy the appearance of a cosmic Christmas tree.
Erratic, volatile behavior is a common characteristic of neutron stars or black holes with orbiting normal companion stars. Gas ripped off the normal star falls toward the compact star where the gas is compressed and heated by gravitational fields billions of times stronger than on the surface of the Sun. This process generates powerful X-radiation that can flare up and subside in a matter of seconds.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/S. Immler et al.
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A star's spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of 1054 A.D. Now, almost a thousand years later, a super dense object -- called a neutron star -- left behind by the explosion is seen spewing out a blizzard of high-energy particles into the expanding debris field known as the Crab Nebula. X-ray data from Chandra provide significant clues to the workings of this mighty cosmic "generator," which is producing energy at the rate of 100,000 suns.
This composite image uses data from three of NASA's Great Observatories. The Chandra X-ray image is shown in blue, the Hubble Space Telescope optical images are in yellow and red, and the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared image is in purple. The X-ray image is smaller than the others because extremely energetic electrons emitting X-rays radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light. Along with many other telescopes, Chandra has repeatedly observed the Crab Nebula over the course of the mission’s lifetime. The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the sky, truly making it a cosmic icon.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/crab/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward; Optical: NASA/ESA/ASU/J.Hester & A.Loll; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Minn./R.Gehrz
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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The barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 is interacting with a smaller galaxy to the upper left. The smaller galaxy has likely stripped gas from NGC 6872 to feed the supermassive black hole in its center. X-rays from Chandra (purple); optical from Hubble (red, green, and blue)
Visual Description:
In this composite image, a large spiral galaxy has some of its superheated gas stolen by a smaller, nearby neighbor. Centered in the frame, NGC 6872 is a large spiral galaxy with two elongated arms that stretch toward our upper right and lower left. Near the white dot at the heart of the galaxy, a cloud of neon purple tints the arms, which appear steel blue at the tips. The purple represents hot gas detected by Chandra. Just to the upper left of NGC 6872 is a second spiral galaxy. Its spiraling arms are much smaller, but the bright white dot at its core is quite large, suggesting a supermassive black hole. Some of the steel blue matter and gas from NGC 6872’s lower arm appears to be floating toward the smaller galaxy, likely pulled toward the supermassive black hole.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, L. Frattare, and J. Major
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To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s deployment into space, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., pointed Hubble’s eye at an especially photogenic pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. This image is a composite of Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 data taken on December 17, 2010, with three separate filters that allow a broad range of wavelengths covering the ultraviolet, blue, and red portions of the spectrum.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
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