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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
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.
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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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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Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) XMM-Newton that examined the effects of X-rays on potential planets around the most common type of stars.
Astronomers found that only a planet with greenhouse gases in its atmosphere like Earth and at a relatively large distance away from the star they studied would have a chance to support life as we know it around a nearby star.
Wolf 359 is a red dwarf with a mass about a tenth that of the Sun. Red dwarf stars are the most common stars in the universe and live for billions of years, providing ample time for life to develop. At a distance of only 7.8 light-years away, Wolf 359 is also one of the closest stars to the solar system.
This artist’s illustration represents the results from a new study that examines the effects of X-ray and other high-energy radiation unleashed on potential exoplanets from Wolf 359, a nearby red dwarf star. Researchers used Chandra and XMM-Newton to study the impact of steady X-ray and energetic ultraviolet radiation from Wolf 359 on the atmospheres of planets that might be orbiting the star. They found that only a planet with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in its atmosphere and at a relatively large distance away from Wolf 359 would have a chance to support life as we know it.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/S.Wolk, et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Weiss; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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This 2012 image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, shows X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This view shows the hottest and most energetic areas, where the Chandra X-ray Observatory observed the X-ray emissions from exploded stars, million-degree gas, and material colliding around black holes.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
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G292.0+1.8 Supernova Remnant
New 3D models of objects in space have been released by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. These 3D models allow people to explore — and print — examples of stars in the early and end stages of their lives. They also provide scientists with new avenues to investigate scientific questions and find insights about the objects they represent. Supernova remnant G292.0+1.8 is the subject of one of the models. This is a rare type of supernova remnant observed to contain large amounts of oxygen. The X-ray image of G292.0+1.8 from Chandra shows a rapidly expanding, intricately structured field left behind by the shattered star. By creating a 3D model of the system, astronomers have been able to examine the asymmetrical shape of the remnant that can be explained by a “reverse” shock wave moving back toward the original explosion.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical:NSF/NASA/DSS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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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 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
Read more about Chandra:
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!
This highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. This image shows X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Most supernova explosions that destroy massive stars are generally symmetrical. In the W49B's supernova, however, it appears that the material near its poles was ejected at much higher speeds than that at its equator. There is also evidence that the explosion that produced W49B left behind a black hole and not a neutron star like most other supernovas.
Credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/L.Lopez et al.
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NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is adding a new dimension to our understanding of space.
Using a new X-ray tomography method, researchers have created the first 3D maps of molecular clouds in the center of the Milky Way - dubbed the “Stone” and the “Sticks” clouds. They used Chandra data spanning two decades to create their 3D models of the Stone and Sticks molecular clouds. While astronomers typically only see two spatial dimensions of objects in space, the X-ray tomography method allows us to measure the third dimension of the cloud because the X-rays illuminate individual slices of the cloud over time.
Visual Description:
This release features a panoramic image, approximately 1,100 light-years across, of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Billowy clouds, in shades of mostly red and blue, stretch across the middle of the image which is much wider than it is tall. Toward the right side of the image is a tiny, bright ball of light. This ball of light is Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/UConn/D. Alboslani et al.; Infrared: NASA/ESA/JPL/CalTech/Herschel; NASA/ESA/JPL/CalTech/Spitzer; Radio: ASIAA/SAO/SMA; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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This 2010 image from NASA's Chandar X-ray Observatory shows the central region of the M82 galaxy and contains two bright X-ray sources of special interest. New studies with Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton show that these two sources may be intermediate-mass black holes, with masses in between those of the stellar-mass and supermassive variety. These "survivor" black holes avoided falling into the center of the galaxy and could be examples of the seeds required for the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxies, including the one in the Milky Way.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/Tsinghua Univ./H. Feng et al.
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At this time of year, there are lots of gatherings often decorated with festive lights. When galaxies get together, there is the chance of a spectacular light show as is the case with NGC 2207 and IC 2163
Located about 130 million light years from Earth, in the constellation of Canis Major, this pair of spiral galaxies has been caught in a grazing encounter. NGC 2207 and IC 2163 have hosted three supernova explosions in the past 15 years and have produced one of the most bountiful collections of super bright X-ray lights known. These special objects – known as “ultraluminous X-ray sources” (ULXs) – have been found using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Read more:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/galactic-get-together-has-impressive-light-display.html
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/S.Mineo et al, Optical: NASA/STScI, Infr
Read more about Chandra:
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 2001 Chandra image, the first X-ray image ever made of Venus, shows a half crescent due to the relative orientation of the Sun, Earth and Venus. The X-rays from Venus are produced by fluorescent radiation from oxygen and other atoms in the atmosphere between 120 and 140 kilometers above the surface of the planet. In contrast, the optical light from Venus is caused by the reflection from clouds 50 to 70 kilometers above the surface.
Solar X-rays bombard the atmosphere of Venus, knock electrons out of the inner parts of atoms, and excite the atoms to a higher energy level. The atoms almost immediately return to their lower energy state with the emission of a fluorescent X-ray. A similar process involving ultraviolet light produces the visible light from fluorescent lamps.
This and future X-ray images will enable scientists to examine regions of the Venusian atmosphere that are difficult to investigate otherwise.
Image credit: NASA/MPE/K.Dennerl et al.
There’s an adage that it’s not healthy to skip meals. Apparently, a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy millions of light years away has gotten the message.
A team of astronomers found X-ray bursts repeating about every nine hours originating from the center of a galaxy called GSN 069. Obtained with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton, these data indicate that the supermassive black hole located there is consuming large amounts of material on a regular schedule.
While scientists had previously found two “stellar-mass” black holes (that weigh about 10 times the Sun’s mass) occasionally undergoing regular outbursts before, this behavior has never been detected from a supermassive black hole until now.
The black hole at the center of GSN 069, located 250 million light years from Earth, contains about 400,000 times the mass of the Sun. The researchers estimate that the black hole is consuming about four Moons’ worth of material about three times a day. That’s equivalent to almost a million billion billion pounds going into the black hole per feeding.
This year, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates its 20th year in space exploring the extreme universe.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/CSIC-INTA/G.Miniutti et al.; Optical: DSS
A beautiful new image of two colliding galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories. The Antennae galaxies, located about 62 million light years from Earth, are shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red).
The collision, which began more than 100 million years ago and is still occurring, has triggered the formation of millions of stars in clouds of dusts and gas in the galaxies. The most massive of these young stars have already sped through their evolution in a few million years and exploded as supernovas.
The X-ray image from Chandra 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. Some of these black holes may have masses that are almost one hundred times that of the Sun.
The Spitzer data show infrared light from warm dust clouds that have been heated by newborn stars, with the brightest clouds lying in the overlap region between the two galaxies. The Hubble data reveal old stars in red, filaments of dust in brown and star-forming regions in yellow and white. Many of the fainter objects in the optical image are clusters containing thousands of stars.
The Antennae galaxies take their name from the long antenna-like "arms," seen in wide-angle views of the system. These features were produced by tidal forces generated in the collision.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2010/antennae/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.DePasquale; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
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!
The identification of G21.5-0.9 as the remnant of a supernova explosion is based on indirect evidence from radio and X-ray observations. At both radio and X-ray wavelengths, it appears as round patch in the sky. Detailed observations with radio telescopes confirm that the radio waves are produced by high energy electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines (synchrotron radiation). The X-rays are probably produced by the same process, but the electrons involved have energies many thousands times higher than those that produce the radio waves. The favored theory is that the high-energy electrons responsible for both the radio and X-ray emission are produced by a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron star left behind when a massive star exploded some 40,000 years ago.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
WR 124 is a rare type of Wolf-Rayet star, a bright, massive star experiencing a short-lived phase in its evolution. A dense wind from the star may prevent the detection with Chandra of a neutron star companion. X-rays from Chandra (purple); infrared from Herschel, Spitzer, WISE (blue) and Webb (red, green, and blue)
Visual Description:
In this composite image, a bright, massive star, WR 124, gleams with diffraction spikes, surrounded by a churning wind cloud in reds and purples. With its dusty rose coloring, and the bright, gleaming star at its core, the wind cloud resembles the inside of a delicate flower with opening petals. Dozens of other bright stars surround WR 124, including white dots rimmed with neon purple, and gleaming white dots with cool blue diffraction spikes. The purple dots are stars detected with Chandra.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: (Herschel) ESA/NASA/Caltech, (Spitzer) NASA/JPL/Caltech, (WISE) NASA/JPL/Caltech; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb ERO Production Team; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
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Chandra Celebrates the International Year of Light
When a massive star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, it left behind an expanding shell of debris called SNR 0519-69.0. Here, multimillion degree gas is seen in X-rays from Chandra (blue). The outer edge of the explosion (red) and stars in the field of view are seen in visible light from Hubble.Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
Read full article:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/celebrate-intl-year-of-light.html
The doctor’s in
Using data from Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered a fracture in the Milky Way caused by a fast-moving, rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar.
Check out the diagnosis >> https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/nasas-chandra-diagnoses-cause-of-fracture-in-galactic-bone/
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ./F. Yusef-Zadeh et al; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKat; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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In this 2005 Chandra image, four bright, variable X-ray sources were discovered within 3 light years of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). The variability suggests these are X-ray binary systems where a black hole or neutron star is pulling matter from a nearby companion star. Such a high concentration of X-ray binaries in this region is strong circumstantial evidence that a dense swarm of 10,000 or more stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars has formed around Sgr A*.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/UCLA/M.Muno et al.
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NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory contributes to the understanding of planetary nebulas by studying the hottest and most energetic processes still at work in these beautiful objects. X-ray data from Chandra reveal winds being driven away from the white dwarf so quickly (i.e., millions of miles per hour) that they create shock waves during collisions with slower-moving material previously ejected by the star. Chandra’s exceptional vision in X-rays contributes to the understanding of this brief, yet important, stage of stars’ lives. Here is the NGC 3242 planetary nebula that has been observed both by Chandra and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI/Univ. Washington, B.Balick
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The 2002 Chandra image of the distant supernova remnant SNR G54.1+0.3 reveals a bright ring of high-energy particles with a central point-like source. This observation enabled scientists to use the giant Arecibo Radio Telescope to search for and locate the pulsar, or neutron star that powers the ring. The ring of particles and two jet-like structures appear to be due to the energetic flow of radiation and particles from the rapidly spinning neutron star rotating 7 times per second.
During the supernova event, the core of a massive star collapsed to form a neutron star that is highly magnetized and creates an enormous electric field as it rotates. The electric field accelerates particles near the neutron star and produces jets blasting away from the poles, and as a disk of matter and anti-matter flowing away from the equator at high speeds. As the equatorial flow rams into the particles and magnetic fields in the nebula, a shock wave forms. The shock wave boosts the particles to extremely high energies causing them to glow in X-rays and produce the bright ring (see inset).
The particles stream outward from the ring and the jets to supply the extended nebula, which spans approximately 6 light years.
The features observed in SNR G54.1+0.3 are very similar to other "pulsar wind nebulas" found by Chandra in the Crab Nebula, the Vela supernova remnant, and PSR B1509-58. By analyzing the similarities and differences between these objects, scientists hope to better understand the fascinating process of transforming the rotational energy of the neutron star into high-energy particles with very little frictional heat loss.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/U.Mass/F.Lu et al.
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New movies of two of the most famous objects in the sky — the Crab Nebula and Cassiopeia A — are being released from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each includes X-ray data collected by Chandra over about two decades. They show dramatic changes in the debris and radiation remaining after the explosion of two massive stars in our galaxy.
This video begins with a composite version of the Cassiopeia A, combining Chandra X-ray data with infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Cassiopeia A (Cas A for short) is the remains of a supernova that is estimated to have exploded about 340 years ago in Earth’s sky. This new Cas A movie features data from 2000 through to 2019. The images used in the latest Cas A movie have been processed using a state-of-the-art processing technique, led by Yusuke from Rikkyo University in Japan, to fully capitalize on Chandra's sharp X-ray vision.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major, A. Jubett, K. Arcand
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NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have identified a supermassive black hole that has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel another star or smaller black hole, as described in our latest press release. This research helps connect two cosmic mysteries and provides information about the environment around some of the bigger types of black holes.
This image shows Chandra X-ray data (purple) and an optical image of the source from Pan-STARRS (red, green, and blue) of the area around AT2019qiz. Chandra and other telescopes have identified this supermassive black hole that has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel another star or smaller black hole. The X-ray source at lower left is unrelated to the AT2019qiz system. It's most likely a supermassive black hole in a background galaxy located behind AT2019qiz.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Queen’s Univ. Belfast/M. Nicholl et al.; Optical/IR: PanSTARRS, NSF/Legacy Survey/SDSS; Illustration: Soheb Mandhai / The Astro Phoenix; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
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We have seen intricate patterns that milk makes in coffee and much smoother ones that honey makes when stirred with a spoon. Which of these cases best describes the behavior of the hot gas in galaxy clusters? By answering this question, a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has deepened our understanding of galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity.
Galaxy clusters are comprised of three main components: individual galaxies, multimillion-degree gas that fills the space between the galaxies, and dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that is spread throughout a cluster and accounts for about 80 percent of the mass of the cluster.
A team of astronomers used a set of long Chandra observations, totaling about two weeks of observing, of the Coma galaxy cluster to probe gas properties on spatial scales comparable with a typical distance that particles travel between collisions with each other. This measurement helped them to learn about the viscosity - the technical term for the resistance to the motion of gas lumps with respect to each other – of the hot gas in Coma.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago, I. Zhuravleva et al, Optical: SDSS
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 system contains a pair of merging galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and the multimillion-degree gas emits X-rays detected by Chandra. X-rays from Chandra (purple); optical from ESO (red, green, blue)
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: ESO; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #ESA #galaxy
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 Crab Nebula is the result of a bright supernova explosion witnessed by Chinese and other astronomers in 1054 A.D. Chandra sees the rings around the pulsar and the jets blasting into space. X-rays from Chandra (blue-violet and white) and IXPE (purple); optical from Hubble (red, green, and blue)
Credit: X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/SAO, (IXPE) NASA/MSFC; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, K. Arcand, and L. Frattare
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #Nebula
Editor's note: LOVE this image! Definitely going to add it to the "NASA Goes Pink" gallery, for Breast Cancer Awareness month in October: www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/sets/72157625045060125/
High-mass stars are important because they are responsible for much of the energy pumped into our galaxy over its lifetime. Unfortunately, these stars are poorly understood because they are often found relatively far away and can be obscured by gas and dust. The star cluster NGC 281 is an exception to this rule. It is located about 9,200 light years from Earth and, remarkably, almost 1,000 light years above the plane of the Galaxy, giving astronomers a nearly unfettered view of the star formation within it.
NGC 281 is known informally as the "Pacman Nebula" because of its appearance in optical images. In optical images the "mouth" of the Pacman character appears dark because of obscuration by dust and gas, but in the infrared Spitzer image the dust in this region glows brightly.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk; IR: NASA/JPL/CfA/S.Wolk
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/ngc281/
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
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...
It’s time to take a cosmic road trip using light as the highway and visit four stunning destinations across space. The vehicles for this space get-away are NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The Cosmic Road Trip presents four distinct composite images from Chandra and JWST in a two-by-two grid, Rho Ophiuchi at lower right, the heart of the Orion Nebula at upper right, the galaxy NGC 3627 at lower left and the galaxy cluster MACS J0416.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/Infrared: (Hubble) NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: (JWST) NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
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Read more about NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Evidence for the biggest explosion seen in the Universe comes from a combination of X-ray data from Chandra and XMM-Newton, and the Murchison Widefield Array and Giant Metrewave Telescope, as shown here. The eruption is generated by a black hole located in the cluster's central galaxy, which has blasted out jets and carved a large cavity in the surrounding hot gas. Researchers estimate this explosion released five times more energy than the previous record holder and hundreds of thousands of times more than a typical galaxy cluster.
Image credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci, et al., XMM-Newton: ESA/XMM-Newton; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
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 Crab Nebula is the result of a bright supernova explosion witnessed by Chinese and other astronomers in 1054 A.D. Chandra sees the rings around the pulsar and the jets blasting into space. X-rays from Chandra (blue-violet and white) and IXPE (purple); optical from Hubble (red, green, and blue)
Credit: X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/SAO, (IXPE) NASA/MSFC; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, K. Arcand, and L. Frattare
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #Nebula
In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, we give you the Perseus cluster. Here, an accumulation of 270 hours of Chandra observations of the central regions of the Perseus galaxy cluster reveals evidence of the turmoil that has wracked the cluster for hundreds of millions of years. One of the most massive objects in the universe, the cluster contains thousands of galaxies immersed in a vast cloud of multimillion degree gas with the mass equivalent of trillions of suns. Enormous bright loops, ripples, and jet-like streaks are apparent in the image. The dark blue filaments in the center are likely due to a galaxy that has been torn apart and is falling into NGC 1275, a.k.a. Perseus A, the giant galaxy that lies at the center of the cluster.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/IoA/A.Fabian et al.
This image shows evidence for an exhaust vent attached to a chimney releasing hot gas from a region around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, as reported in our latest press release. In the main image, X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) have been combined with radio data from the MeerKAT telescope (red).
Previously, astronomers had identified a “chimney” of hot gas near the Galactic Center using X-ray data from Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton. Radio emission detected by MeerKAT shows the effect of magnetic fields enclosing the gas in the chimney.
Evidence for the exhaust vent is highlighted in the inset, which includes only Chandra data. Several X-ray ridges showing brighter X-rays appear in white, roughly perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy. Researchers think these are the walls of a tunnel, shaped like a cylinder, which helps funnel hot gas as it moves upwards along the chimney and away from the Galactic Center.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/S.C. Mackey et al.; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #galaxy #blackhole #supermassiveblackhole
NGC 7469 is a spiral galaxy, seen face on, that contains a growing supermassive black hole. Chandra shows hot gas near the black hole. X-rays from Chandra (purple); optical/IR from Hubble (red, green, and blue); infrared image from Webb (red, green, and blue)
Visual Description:
This composite image features a spiral galaxy, viewed face on. Here, two blue and red speckled arms spiral around a black hole at the heart of the galaxy, known as NGC 7469. Faint clouds of pale blue mist trace the lines of the speckled arms, muting the colors in the image. Here, the black hole at the center of the galaxy is represented by a bright white dot encircled by a mottled, neon purple ring. This dot and ring represent X-ray emission from hot gas around the black hole. Due to the perfect face-on angle, six red diffraction spikes radiate from the glowing black hole, like laser beams.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Xiamen Univ./X. Xu; Optical/Infrared: NASA/ESA/UVA, NRAO, SUNY at Stony Brook/A. S. Evans, Hubble Heritage–ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/L. Armus, A. S. Evans; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
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This 2001 Chandra image is colorized to highlight a population of point-like "ultraluminous" X-ray sources in M82, a starburst galaxy 11 million light years from Earth. In the image, red represents the low energy band, green intermediate, and blue the highest observed energies. The white and yellow sources are those that emit significant amounts of both low- and high-energy X-rays. The ultraluminous sources, which emit ten to several hundred times more X-ray power than similar sources in our Galaxy, are believed to be either massive black holes, or black holes that are beaming energy toward Earth. The brightest point-like source, located near the center of the image, is the most powerful ultraluminous source detected in any galaxy to date.
Observations of M82 and other starburst galaxies suggest that the origin of ultraluminous sources is related to a burst of star formation triggered by a collision with another galaxy. Astronomers suspect that M82 had a close encounter with a large galaxy, M81 in the last 100 million years.
The diffuse red cloud in the image is caused by multi-million degree gas flowing out of the central region of M82.
This year, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates its 20th year in space exploring the extreme universe.
Credit: NASA/SAO/G.Fabbiano et al.
More about Chandra's 20th Anniversary
First observed by Chandra in September 1999, Centaurus A was an early demonstration of the spectacular science this powerful X-ray observatory could do. Astronomers continue to use Chandra to study this elliptical galaxy (also known as NGC 5128) that contains a spectacular jet and a core teeming with X-ray emitting sources.
This 2001 Chandra image of Cen A shows a bright central source: the Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) suspected of harboring a supermassive black hole. Chandra also detects a jet emanating from the core and numerous point-like X-ray sources, all bathed in diffuse X-rays produced by several-million-degree gas that fills the galaxy. The unprecedented imaging resolution of Chandra allows scientists for the first time to clearly resolve each of these distinct components of the X-ray emission for detailed study.
Over 200 point-like X-ray sources have been identified and studied in Cen A. Because of their distribution around the center of the galaxy, it is believed that most of these sources are X-ray binaries in which a neutron star or stellar-sized black hole is accreting matter from a nearby companion star. A few may be supernova remnants or unrelated, more distant background galaxies. Comparison of Cen A's X-ray binary population with populations in other galaxies is important for understanding the evolutionary history of galaxies.
This year, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory celebrates its 20th year in space exploring the extreme universe.
Credit: NASA/SAO/R.Kraft et al.
More about Chandra's 20th Anniversary
A rapidly feeding black hole at the center of a dwarf galaxy in the early universe, shown in this artist's concept, may hold important clues to the evolution of supermassive black holes in general.
Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of astronomers discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole just 1.5 billion years after the big bang. The black hole is pulling in matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole's “feast” could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early universe.
Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the universe's evolution. It's difficult to understand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass supermassive black hole feasting on material at an extreme rate so soon after the birth of the universe, astronomers now have valuable new insights into the mechanisms of rapidly growing black holes in the early universe.
The black hole, called LID-568, was hidden among thousands of objects in the Chandra X-ray Observatory's COSMOS legacy survey, a catalog resulting from some 4.6 million seconds of Chandra observations. This population of galaxies is very bright in the X-ray light, but invisible in optical and previous near-infrared observations. By following up with Webb, astronomers could use the observatory's unique infrared sensitivity to detect these faint counterpart emissions, which led to the discovery of the black hole.
Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/M. Zamani
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Read more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory
This 2005 false-color image shows comet Tempel 1 as seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory on June 30, 2005. The comet was bright and condensed. The Chandra data indicate that the X-rays observed from Tempel 1 are primarily due to the interaction between highly charged oxygen ions in the solar wind and neutral gases from the comet. Chandra observed the comet during the collision of NASA's Deep Impact impactor probe with Tempel 1 on July 4, and it will continue to monitor the comet in the upcoming weeks. These observations could provide information about the expansion of the ejected material away from the comet.
Image Credit: NASA/CXC/C.Lisse & S.Wolk
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Editor's note: Happy Friday, Flickr friends! This image is related to this week's Chandra release for the Eta Carinae star system. Hope you enjoy!
Eta Carinae is one of the most luminous known star systems in our galaxy. It radiates energy at a rate that is 5 million times that of the Sun. Most of this energy is radiated at infrared wavelengths. It is shrouded in a rapidly expanding cloud of dust which absorbs radiation from the central star and re-radiates it in the infrared.
Read more:
chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2014/etacar/more.html
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Read more about Chandra:
Chandra album on Flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasamarshall/sets/72157606205297786/
_____________________________________________
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...
In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have collaborated to produce an unprecedented image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy.
In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core. Note that the center of the galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. The entire image width covers about one-half a degree, about the same angular width as the full moon.
Each telescope's contribution is presented in a different color:
- Yellow represents the near-infrared observations of Hubble. They outline the energetic regions where stars are being born as well as reveal hundreds of thousands of stars.
- Red represents the infrared observations of Spitzer. The radiation and winds from stars create glowing dust clouds that exhibit complex structures from compact, spherical globules to long, stringy filaments.
- Blue and violet represents the X-ray observations of Chandra. X-rays are emitted by gas heated to millions of degrees by stellar explosions and by outflows from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's center. The bright blue blob on the left side of the full field image is emission from a double star system containing either a neutron star or a black hole.
When these views are brought together, this composite image provides one of the most detailed views ever of our galaxy's mysterious core.
Read entire caption/view more images: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/galactic/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/D.Wang et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSC/S.Stolovy
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
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!
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3059, which lies about 57 million light-years from Earth. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 collected the data in May 2024 as part of an observing program that studied a number of galaxies. All of the observations used the same range of filters: partially transparent materials that allow only very specific wavelengths of light to pass through.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #galaxy
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator. Many navigators, including Ferdinand Magellan who lends his name to the SMC, used it to help find their way across the oceans.
Modern astronomers are also interested in studying the SMC (and its cousin, the Large Magellanic Cloud), but for very different reasons. Because the SMC is so close and bright, it offers an opportunity to study phenomena that are difficult to examine in more distant galaxies. New Chandra data of the SMC have provided one such discovery: the first detection of X-ray emission from young stars with masses similar to our Sun outside our Milky Way galaxy. The new Chandra observations of these low-mass stars were made of the region known as the "Wing" of the SMC. In this composite image of the Wing the Chandra data is shown in purple, optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope is shown in red, green and blue and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope is shown in red.
Astronomers call all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium -- that is, with more than two protons in the atom's nucleus -- "metals." The Wing is a region known to have fewer metals compared to most areas within the Milky Way. There are also relatively lower amounts of gas, dust, and stars in the Wing compared to the Milky Way.
Taken together, these properties make the Wing an excellent location to study the life cycle of stars and the gas lying in between them. Not only are these conditions typical for dwarf irregular galaxies like the SMC, they also mimic ones that would have existed in the early Universe.
Most star formation near the tip of the Wing is occurring in a small region known as NGC 602, which contains a collection of at least three star clusters. One of them, NGC 602a, is similar in age, mass, and size to the famous Orion Nebula Cluster. Researchers have studied NGC 602a to see if young stars -- that is, those only a few million years old -- have different properties when they have low levels of metals, like the ones found in NGC 602a.
Using Chandra, astronomers discovered extended X-ray emission, from the two most densely populated regions in NGC 602a. The extended X-ray cloud likely comes from the population of young, low-mass stars in the cluster, which have previously been picked out by infrared and optical surveys, using Spitzer and Hubble respectively. This emission is not likely to be hot gas blown away by massive stars, because the low metal content of stars in NGC 602a implies that these stars should have weak winds. The failure to detect X-ray emission from the most massive star in NGC 602a supports this conclusion, because X-ray emission is an indicator of the strength of winds from massive stars. No individual low-mass stars are detected, but the overlapping emission from several thousand stars is bright enough to be observed.
The Chandra results imply that the young, metal-poor stars in NGC 602a produce X-rays in a manner similar to stars with much higher metal content found in the Orion cluster in our galaxy. The authors speculate that if the X-ray properties of young stars are similar in different
environments, then other related properties -- including the formation and evolution of disks where planets form -- are also likely to be similar.
X-ray emission traces the magnetic activity of young stars and is related to how efficiently their magnetic dynamo operates. Magnetic dynamos generate magnetic fields in stars through a process involving the star's speed of rotation, and convection, the rising and falling of hot gas in the star's interior.
The combined X-ray, optical and infrared data also revealed, for the first time outside our Galaxy, objects representative of an even younger stage of evolution of a star. These so-called "young stellar objects" have ages of a few thousand years and are still embedded in the pillar of dust and gas from which stars form, as in the famous "Pillars of Creation" of the Eagle Nebula.
A paper describing these results was published online and in the March 1, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The first author is Lidia Oskinova from the University of Potsdam in Germany and the co-authors are Wei Sun from Nanjing University, China; Chris Evans from the Royal
Observatory Edinburgh, UK; Vincent Henault-Brunet from University of Edinburgh, UK; You-Hua Chu from the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL; John Gallagher III from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI; Martin Guerrero from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain; Robert Gruendl from the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL; Manuel Gudel from the University of Vienna, Austria; Sergey Silich from the Instituto Nacional de Astrofısica Optica y Electr´onica, Puebla, Mexico; Yang Chen from Nanjing University, China; Yael Naze from Universite de Liege, Liege, Belgium; Rainer Hainich from the University of Potsdam, Germany, and Jorge Reyes-Iturbide from the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilheus, Brazil.
Read entire caption/view more images: www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/ngc602/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
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!
_____________________________________________
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...
Astronomers observed a binary system with a neutron star (the extremely dense remnant left behind by a supernova explosion) in orbit with a low-mass companion acting in an unusual way. Using X-ray data from Chandra, researchers saw that Terzan 5 CX1 had traits of a "low-mass X-ray binary" before it started behaving like a millisecond pulsar, and then years later returned to its original role. In this image (right) of the Terzan 5 globular cluster, low, medium and high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra are colored red, green and blue respectively. An image from Hubble shows the same field of view in optical light.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Amsterdam/N.Degenaar, et al.; Optical: NASA, ESA
The X-ray image of the quasar PKS 1127-145, a highly luminous source of X-rays and visible light about 10 billion light years from Earth, shows an enormous X-ray jet that extends at least a million light years from the quasar. The jet is likely due to the collision of a beam of high-energy electrons with microwave photons.
The high-energy beam is thought to have been produced by explosive activity related to gas swirling around a supermassive black hole. The length of the jet and the observed bright knots of X-ray emission suggest that the explosive activity is long-lived but intermittent.
On their way to Earth, the X-rays from the quasar pass through a galaxy located 4 billion light years away. Atoms of various elements in this galaxy absorb some of the X-rays, and produce a dimming of the quasar's X-rays, or an X-ray shadow. In a similar way, when our body is X-rayed, our bones produce an X-ray shadow. By measuring the amount of absorption astronomers were able to estimate that 4 billion years ago, the gas in the absorbing galaxy contained a much lower concentration of oxygen relative to hydrogen gas than does our galaxy - about 5 times lower. These observations will give astronomers insight into how the oxygen supply of galaxies is built up over the eons.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska(CfA)/J.Bechtold(U.Arizona)
#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #chandraxrayobservatory #ChandraXRay #cxo #chandra #astronomy #space #astrophysics #nasamarshallspaceflightcenter #solarsystemandbeyond #galaxy #quasar #supermassiveblackhole #blackhole
This 2003 Chandra image of the quasar GB1508+5714 reveals a jet of high-energy particles that extends more than 100,000 light years from the supermassive black hole powering the quasar. At a distance of 12 billion light years from Earth, this was the most distant jet ever detected.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
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Astronomers nicknamed this region of star formation the “Cosmic Cliffs,” which is found in the nearby Carina Nebula. X-rays from young stars in two clusters are detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. X-rays from Chandra (purple); infrared from Webb (yellow, green, cyan, and blue)
Visual Description:
This composite image features two star clusters, viewed through a churning tunnel of golden cloud. The cloud creates a border around the entire image, like a thick swirling smoke ring. Beyond it, in the open center, is a vast field of neon purple specks. These specks are young stars observed by Chandra. Within the central field, two cluster groupings are suggested by separate swirls of faint, steel blue mist. One sits near our upper right. The other is near the bottom left, partially obscured by the golden yellow ring cloud.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ludwig Maximilian Univ./T. Preibisch et al.; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #nebula
Editor's Note: An archived image from 2006 -- great name, the Cartwheel Galaxy!
This image combines data from four different observatories: the Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple); the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite (ultraviolet/blue); the Hubble Space Telescope (visible/green); the Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared/red). The unusual shape of the Cartwheel Galaxy is likely due to a collision with one of the smaller galaxies on the lower left several hundred million years ago.
The smaller galaxy produced compression waves in the gas of the Cartwheel as it plunged through it. These compression waves trigger bursts of star formation. The most recent star burst has lit up the Cartwheel's rim, which has a diameter larger than that of the Milky Way galaxy, with millions of bright young stars.
When the most massive of these stars explode as supernovas, they leave behind neutron stars and black holes. Some of these neutron stars and black holes have nearby companion stars, and have become powerful sources of X-rays as they pull matter off their companions.
The brightest X-ray sources are likely black holes with companion stars, and appear as the white dots that lie along the rim of the X-ray image. The Cartwheel contains an exceptionally large number of these black hole binary X-ray sources, because many massive stars formed in the rim.
Image credit: Composite: NASA/JPL/Caltech/P.Appleton et al. X-ray: NASA/CXC/A.Wolter & G.Trinchieri et al.
More about this image:
chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/cartwheel/
More about Chandra:
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!
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 Cat’s Paw is a nebula where stars are forming in the Milky Way galaxy. X-rays from Chandra show populations of young stars. X-rays from Chandra (purple); optical and H-alpha from ESO/MPG (red, green, and blue); infrared from Spitzer (red, green, and blue)
Credit: X-ray: NASA/SAO/CXC; Optical and H-alpha: ESO/MPG; Infrared: NASA/JPL-CalTech/Spitzer; Image Processing: J. Major
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #ESA #nebula
For the first time, astronomers have combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope to study the well-known supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A). As described in our latest press release, this work has helped explain an unusual structure in the debris from the destroyed star called the “Green Monster,” first discovered in Webb data in April 2023. The research has also uncovered new details about the explosion that created Cas A about 340 years ago, from Earth’s perspective.
A new composite image contains X-rays from Chandra (blue), infrared data from Webb (red, green, blue), and optical data from Hubble (red and white). The outer parts of the image also include infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (red, green and blue). To see the outline of the "Green Monster," go to this link
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Milisavljevic et al., NASA/JPL/CalTech; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and K. Arcand
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #supernova #NASAWebb #JWST #NASASpitzer