- Une nouvelle galerie d’images combinant les données de rayons X de Chandra avec celles d’autres télescopes est en cours de publication.
- Les objets vont d’un vestige de supernova dans le Milky Way to a galaxy cluster millions of light years away.
- The layers of data are colored in each image to enhance various features.
- This is a demonstration of how new telescopes like JWST and IXPE will work with other observatories to explore the Universe.
This collection of images contains objects ranging from a supernova remnant within our Galaxy to an enormous galaxy cluster millions of light years away. Each image contains X-rays from Chandra in combination with data from other telescopes that capture different types of light. The objects are the binary system R Aquarii, the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, the “Guitar Nebula” and its pulsar, the galaxy cluster Abell 2597, and the NGC 4490 galaxy. These images demonstrate how X-rays — colored differently in each image — are emitted by very hot and energetic objects throughout the universe. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI, Palomar Observatory, DSS; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; H-Alpha: LCO/IMACS/MMTF
The recent launches of the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) by NASA and its international partners are excellent reminders that the universe emits light or energy in many different forms. To fully investigate cosmic objects and phenomena, scientists need telescopes that can detect light across what is known as the electromagnetic spectrum.
Cette galerie fournit des exemples de la façon dont on peut combiner différents types de lumière provenant de télescopes au sol et dans l’espace. Le fil conducteur de chacune de ces sélections est constitué par les données de l’observatoire Chandra X de la NASA, qui illustrent la façon dont les rayons X – émis par des processus très chauds et énergétiques – sont présents dans tout l’Univers.
Composite de R Aquarii. Crédit : X-ray : NASA/CXC/SAO ; Optique : NASA/STScI, Palomar Observatory, DSS ; Radio : NSF/NRAO/VLA ; H-Alpha : LCO/IMACS/MMTF
R Aquarii
Cet objet est, en fait, une paire : une white dwarf star that steadily burns at a relatively cool temperature and a highly variable red giant. As they orbit each other, the white dwarf pulls material from the red giant onto its surface. Over time, enough of this material accumulates and triggers an explosion. Astronomers have seen such outbursts over recent decades. Evidence for much older outbursts is seen in the spectacular structures observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (red and blue). X-ray data from Chandra (purple) shows how a jet from the white dwarf is striking material surrounding it and creating shock waves, similar to sonic booms from supersonic planes.
Cassiopeia A Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI, Palomar Observatory, DSS; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; H-Alpha: LCO/IMACS/MMTF
Cassiopeia A
Chandra’s observations of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant have shown how individual elements from the exploded star are being cast off into space. In this image, X-rays reveal silicon (red), sulfur (yellow), calcium (green), and iron (light purple). The blue around the rim of the remnant reveals the blast wave from the explosion as it travels outward. This image also adds a layer of radio data of Cassiopeia A from the National Science Foundation’s Karl Jansky Very Large Array (dark purple, blue, and white) and an optical image from Hubble (orange). Like X-rays, radio waves can penetrate thick clouds of gas and dust that lie between Earth and Cassiopeia A, providing additional information about this famous stellar explosion.
Guitar Nebula Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI, Palomar Observatory, DSS; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; H-Alpha: LCO/IMACS/MMTF
Guitar Nebula
For the last decade or so, astronomers have been puzzled by the alignment of some jets of X-rays coming from very fast-moving pulsars (that is, spinning neutron stars) that shoot out into interstellar space at odd, unexpected angles. This is what astronomers see with PSR B2224+65, a pulsar found near the structure nicknamed the “Guitar Nebula” due to its shape in optical light (blue). An X-ray stream (pink) captured by Chandra is pointed nearly perpendicular to the guitar-shaped structure, originating from the magnetic poles of the pulsar.
Abell 2597 Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI, Palomar Observatory, DSS; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; H-Alpha: LCO/IMACS/MMTF
Abell 2597
Galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the universe held together by gravity, are dynamic environments containing individual galaxies and huge amounts of hot gas and dark matter. Often, an enormous black hole in the center of a cluster can help drive its behavior. In the galaxy cluster Abell 2597, a giant central supermassive black hole is driving the gas outward and creating bubbles, or voids, within it. This composite image of Abell 2597 includes X-rays from Chandra (blue), optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey (orange), and emission from hydrogen atoms in optical light from the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile (red).
NGC 4490 Composite. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI, Palomar Observatory, DSS; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; H-Alpha: LCO/IMACS/MMTF
NGC 4490
When two galaxies are in the process of merging, the gravitational interaction can trigger waves of star formation. This is the case for NGC 4490, a spiral galaxy that has collided with a smaller galaxy to the upper right but not seen in this image. Scientists think that these two galaxies have already had their closest approach and are now separating from one another. Some of the point-like sources of X-rays represent stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars within the galaxy. In this image of NGC 4490, X-rays from Chandra (purple) have been combined with an optical image from Hubble (red, green, and blue).
Le Marshall Space Flight Center de la NASA gère le programme Chandra. Le Chandra X-ray Center du Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory contrôle les opérations scientifiques depuis Cambridge, Massachusetts, et les opérations de vol depuis Burlington, Massachusetts.
