Chandra X-Ray Observatory Captures Breathtaking New Images | Center for Astrophysics

A brand new eye-catching compilation of photos is being launched that options information from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory together with a bunch of different telescopes. together with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope.

As NASA’s flagship X-ray telescope, Chandra observes a variety of astrophysical phenomena which can be manifest in extremely energetic radiation. There are 9 objects on this new space-based gentle pageant, starting from close by pockets of star formation to distant galaxies with large black holes. Moving left to proper, they’re:

Top row:

N79 is a big area of star formation within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite tv for pc neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way. Chandra sees the new gasoline created by younger stars, which helps astronomers higher perceive how stars like our Sun fashioned billions of years in the past.

[X-rays from Chandra (purple) and infrared data from Webb (blue, grey and gold)]  

NGC 2146 is a spiral galaxy with one among its dusty arms obscuring the view of its middle from Earth.. X-rays from Chandra reveal  double star techniques and sizzling gasoline being expelled  from the galaxy by supernova explosions and powerful winds from large stars.

[X-rays from Chandra (pink and purple), optical data from Hubble and the Las Cumbres Observatory in Chile and infrared data from NSF’s Kitt Peak (red, green and blue)]

IC 348 is a star-forming area in our Milky Way galaxy. The wispy constructions that dominate the picture are interstellar materials that displays gentle from the cluster’s stars. The point-like sources in Chandra’s X-ray information are younger stars forming within the cluster..

[X-rays from Chandra (red, green and blue) and Webb infrared data (pink, orange and purple)] 

Middle row:

M83, a spiral galaxy much like the Milky Way, is oriented face-on towards Earth, offering an unobstructed view of its whole construction that’s usually not doable with galaxies considered atdifferent angles. Chandra has detected the explosions of stars, or supernovas, and their aftermath throughout M83.

[X-rays from Chandra (red, green and blue) with ground-based optical data (pink, gold and gray)].

M82 is a so-called starburst galaxy the place stars are forming at charges tens to a whole lot of instances larger than regular galaxies. Chandra sees supernovas that produce increasing bubbles of multimillion-degree gasoline that stretch for tens of millions of light-years away from the galaxy’s disk.

[X-rays from Chandra (purple) with Hubble optical data (red, green, and blue)]

NGC 1068 is a comparatively close by spiral galaxy containing a black gap at its middle that’s twice as large because the one within the Milky Ways. Chandra exhibits a million-mile-per-hour wind is being pushed from NGC 1068’s black gap which lights (?) up the middle of the galaxy in X-rays.

[X-rays from Chandra (blue), radio data from NSF’s VLA radio data (pink), and optical data from Hubble and Webb (yellow, grey and gold)]

Bottom row:

NGC 346 is a younger cluster dwelling to hundreds of new child stars. The cluster’s most large stars createpowerful winds and produce intense radiation. X-rays from Chandra reveal output from large stars within the cluster and diffuse emission from a supernova remnant, the glowing particles of an exploded star.   

[X-rays from Chandra (purple) with optical and ultraviolet from Hubble  blue, brown and gold)]

IC 1623 is a system the place two galaxies are erging. As the galaxies collide, they set off new bursts of star formation that glow intensely in sure varieties of sunshine which is detected by Chandara and different telescopesThe merging galaxies may additionally be within the means of forming a supermassive black gap.

[X-rays from Chandra (magenta) with Webb infrared data (red, gold and gray)] 

Westerlund 1 is the most important and closest “super” star cluster to Earth. Data from Chandra and different telescopes helps astronomers delve deeper into this galactic manufacturing facility the place stars are being produced at terribly excessive charges. Observations from Chandra have uncovered hundreds of particular person stars pumping out X-ray emission into the cluster.

[X-rays from Chandra (pink, blue, purple and orange) with Webb infrared data (yellow, gold and blue) and Hubble optical data (cyan, grey and light yellow)] 

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center, a part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

 

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Image Credits

NGC 2146: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Infrared: NSF/NOAO/KPNO; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

IC 348: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major

M83: 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

M82: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/IR: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major

NGC 1068: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (HST and JWST); Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and N. Wolk

NGC 346: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (HST and JWST); Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and N. Wolk

IC 1623: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and J. Major

Westerlund 1: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare