From NASA Chandra: “4C+29.30: Black Hole Powered Jets Plow Into Galaxy”

NASA Chandra

“A giant black hole in the center of the galaxy 4C+29.30 is generating two powerful jets of particles. By combining X-rays (blue), optical (gold), and radio (pink) data, astronomers get a full picture of what is happening. The X-rays reveal superheated gas swirling around the black hole, some of which may eventually be consumed by it. The black hole at the center of 4C+29.30 is thought to be about 100 million times more massive than our Sun.

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Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/A.Siemiginowska et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA
Release Date May 15, 2013

This composite image of a galaxy illustrates how the intense gravity of a supermassive black hole can be tapped to generate immense power. The image contains X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical light obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (gold) and radio waves from the NSF’s [NRAO] Very Large Array (pink).

This multi-wavelength view shows 4C+29.30, a galaxy located some 850 million light years from Earth. The radio emission comes from two jets of particles that are speeding at millions of miles per hour away from a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The estimated mass of the black hole is about 100 million times the mass of our Sun. The ends of the jets show larger areas of radio emission located outside the galaxy.

The X-ray data show a different aspect of this galaxy, tracing the location of hot gas. The bright X-rays in the center of the image mark a pool of million-degree gas around the black hole. Some of this material may eventually be consumed by the black hole, and the magnetized, whirlpool of gas near the black hole could in turn, trigger more output to the radio jet.

See the full article here.

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From NASA Chandra: “Colossal Hot Cloud Envelopes Colliding Galaxies”

NASA Chandra

“An enormous cloud of hot gas is surrounding two merging spiral galaxies. This gas reservoir contains the mass of 10 billion Suns, spans 300,000 light years, and radiates at more 7 million degrees. X-rays from Chandra (purple) have been combined with optical data from Hubble to make this composite image. A burst of star formation that lasted for at least 200 million years may be responsible for this extra large cloud of hot gas.

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Credit X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/E.Nardini et al); Optical (NASA/STScI)
Release Date April 30, 2013
Observation Date 4 pointings between July 2001 and May 2011
Observation Time 136 hours 6 min (5 days 16 hours 6 min)

Scientists have used Chandra to make a detailed study of an enormous cloud of hot gas enveloping two large, colliding galaxies. This unusually large reservoir of gas contains as much mass as 10 billion Suns, spans about 300,000 light years, and radiates at a temperature of more than 7 million degrees Kelvin.

This giant gas cloud, which scientists call a ‘halo,’ is located in the system called NGC 6240. Astronomers have long known that NGC 6240 is the site of the merger of two large spiral galaxies similar in size to our own Milky Way. Each galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center. The black holes are spiraling toward one another, and may eventually merge to form a larger black hole.

Another consequence of the collision between the galaxies is that the gas contained in each individual galaxy has been violently stirred up. This caused a baby boom of new stars that has lasted for at least 200 million years. During this burst of stellar birth, some of the most massive stars raced through their evolution and exploded relatively quickly as supernovas.”

The scientists involved with this study argue that this rush of supernova explosions dispersed relatively high amounts of important elements such as oxygen, neon, magnesium, and silicon into the hot gas of the newly combined galaxies. According to the researchers, the data suggest that this enriched gas has slowly expanded into and mixed with cooler gas that was already there.”

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From NASA Chandra- “NGC 3576: Massive Stars Revealed by Chandra”

NASA Chandra

“NGC 3576 is a giant HII region of glowing gas located about 9,000 light years from Earth. In the Chandra image of this star forming region, lower-energy X-rays (0.5-2.0 keV) are shown in red and higher-energy X-rays (2-8 keV) are in blue. Chandra reveals a cluster of point-like X-ray sources, some of which are massive young stars that are shredding the cloud of gas from which they formed. The blue sources are stars that are deeply embedded in gas. Regions of diffuse X-ray emission are likely caused by hot winds flowing away from the most massive stars. Some of the diffuse gas near the center of the image is also deeply embedded.

Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/L.Townsley et al.
Observation Dates Jul 21 & 23, 2005
Release Date September 27, 2006

Another view, this one from ESO

HII (pronounced “H-two”) regions are where stars are born from condensing clouds of hydrogen gas (they are named for the large amounts of ionized atomic hydrogen they contain.) These regions are characterized by hot, young, massive stars which emit large amounts of ultraviolet light and ionize the nebula. Because NGC 3576 is very dense, many of the young, massive stars visible in the Chandra image have previously been hidden from view. A cluster of stars is visible in infrared observations, but not enough young, massive stars have been identified to explain the brightness of the nebula. Astronomers have found a large flow of ionized gas in radio observations and huge bubbles in optical images that extend out from the edge of the HII region. Taken with the X-ray data, this information hints that powerful winds are emerging from this hidden cluster.

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From NASA Chandra: “NGC 281: Living the High Life”

NASA Chandra

“NGC 281 is a relatively nearby cloud of gas and dust that lies high above the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Its location makes NGC 281 a good target for astronomers who want to study high-mass stars. are those that contain 8 times the Sun’s mass or more. These stars play an important role in galaxies, but are generally poorly understood because they are hard to observe.

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Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk; IR: NASA/JPL/CfA/S.Wolk
Release Date September 28, 2011
Observation Date 3 pointings from 11/10/05-11/12/05
Observation Time 27 hours 30 min

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.

This composite image of NGC 281 contains X-ray data from Chandra (purple) with infrared observations from Spitzer (red, green, blue). The high-mass stars in NGC 281 drive many aspects of their galactic environment through powerful winds flowing from their surfaces and intense radiation that heats surrounding gas, “boiling it away” into interstellar space. This process results in the formation of large columns of gas and dust, as seen on the left side of the image. These structures likely contain newly forming stars. The eventual deaths of massive stars as supernovas will also seed the galaxy with material and energy.

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.”

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From NASA Chandra: Schematic of the Milky Way

NASA Chandra

Schematic illustration of the Milky Way galaxy, showing the prominent spiral arms, the central galactic bulge, the location of the Sun, and selected X-ray sources.

See the original article here, with further images.

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From NASA Chandra: “PSR J0357+3205: A Pulsar and its Mysterious Tail”

NASA Chandra

A very long tail (over 4 light years across) may be stretching away from a spinning neutron star, or pulsar. The pulsar, named PSR J0357+3205, is located about 1,600 light years from Earth. The tail is puzzling because it shares characteristics with other tails extending from pulsars, but differs in certain properties. Astronomers hope obtaining more data with Chandra and other telescopes will clarify the situation.

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Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/IUSS/A.De Luca et al; Optical: DSS
Release Date July 13, 2011
Observation Date Oct 25 and 26, 2009
Observation Time 22 hours 13 min

A spinning neutron star is tied to a mysterious tail – or so it seems. Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have found that this pulsar, known as PSR J0357+3205 (or PSR J0357 for short), apparently has a long, X-ray bright tail streaming away from it.

This composite image shows Chandra data in blue and Digitized Sky Survey data in yellow. The two bright sources lying near the lower left end of the tail are both thought to be unrelated background objects located outside our galaxy.

PSR J0357 was originally discovered by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope in 2009. Astronomers calculate that the pulsar lies about 1,600 light years from Earth and is about half a million years old, which makes it roughly middle-aged for this type of object.

If the tail is at the same distance as the pulsar then it stretches for 4.2 light years in length. This would make it one of the the longest X-ray tails ever associated with a so-called “rotation- powered” pulsar, a class of pulsar that get its power from the energy lost as the rotation of the pulsar slows down. (Other types of pulsars include those driven by strong magnetic fields and still others that are powered by material falling onto the neutron star.)

The Chandra data indicate that the X-ray tail may be produced by emission from energetic particles in a pulsar wind, with the particles produced by the pulsar spiraling around magnetic field lines. Other X- ray tails around pulsars have been interpreted as bow-shocks generated by the supersonic motion of pulsars through space, with the wind trailing behind as its particles are swept back by the pulsar’s interaction with the interstellar gas it encounters.

However, this bow-shock interpretation may or may not be correct for PSR J0357, with several issues that need to be explained. For example, the Fermi data show that PSR J0357 is losing a very small amount of energy as its spin slows down with time. This energy loss is important, because it is converted into radiation and powering a particle wind from the pulsar. This places limits on the amount of energy that particles in the wind can attain, and so might not account for the quantity of X-rays seen by Chandra in the tail.”

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From NASA Chandra: “NGC 602: Taken Under the “Wing” of the Small Magellanic Cloud”

NASA Chandra

“The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. In this composite image the Chandra data is shown in purple, optical data from Hubble is shown in red, green and blue and infrared data from Spitzer is shown in red. Chandra observations of the SMC have resulted in the first detection of X-ray emission from young stars with masses similar to our Sun outside our Milky Way galaxy.

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Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date April 3, 2013
Observation Date 11 pointings between 31 March and 29 April, 2010
Observation Time 80 hours 45 min (3 days 8 hours 45 min)

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.

NGC602

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.

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 labeled version shows the location of these young stellar objects”

Pillars of creation

Eagle Nebula

See the full article here.

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From NASA Chandra: “El Gordo: NASA’s Chandra Finds Largest Galaxy Cluster in Early Universe”

NASA Chandra

“‘El Gordo‘ is the nickname given to an extraordinary galaxy cluster in the distant universe.Scientists used Chandra and optical telescopes to discover El Gordo some 7 billion light years away and study its properties. It is the most massive, the hottest, and gives off more X-rays than known cluster at its distance or beyond. El Gordo is actually the site of two galaxy clusters colliding, making it a younger cousin to the well-known Bullet Cluster.

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Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Hughes et al, Optical: ESO/VLT/Pontificia Universidad. Catolica de Chile/L.Infante & SOAR (MSU/NOAO/UNC/CNPq-Brazil)/Rutgers/F.Menanteau, IR: NASA/JPL/Rutgers/F.Menanteau
Release Date January 10, 2012
Observation Date 26 Jan 2011
Observation Time 16 hours 40 min

A composite image shows El Gordo in X-ray light from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue, along with optical data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in red, green, and blue, and infrared emission from the NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in red and orange.

X-ray data from Chandra reveal a distinct cometary appearance of El Gordo, including two “tails” extending to the upper right of the image. Along with the VLT’s optical data, this shows that El Gordo is, in fact, the site of two galaxy clusters running into one another at several million miles per hour. This and other characteristics make El Gordo akin to the well-known object called the Bullet Cluster, which is located almost 4 billion light years closer to Earth.

As with the Bullet Cluster, there is evidence that normal matter, mainly composed of hot, X-ray bright gas, has been wrenched apart from the dark matter in El Gordo. The hot gas in each cluster was slowed down by the collision, but the dark matter was not.

El Gordo is located over 7 billion light years from Earth, meaning that it is being observed at a young age. According to the scientists involved in this study, this cluster of galaxies is the most massive, the hottest, and gives off the most X-rays of any known cluster at this distance or beyond.

See the full article here.

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From NASA Chandra: “Galactic Halo: Milky Way is Surrounded by Huge Halo of Hot Gas”

NASA Chandra

“Chandra has provided evidence that our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The mass of the halo is estimated to be comparable to the mass of all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it could be the solution to the ‘missing-baryon‘ problem for the Galaxy.

Credit Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; NASA/CXC/Ohio State/A Gupta et al
Release Date September 24, 2012
Observation Date 38 pointings between 06 Dec 2000 and 07 April 2012
Observation Time 764 hours 53 min. (31 days, 19 hours, 53 min)

This artist’s illustration shows an enormous halo of hot gas (in blue) around the Milky Way galaxy. Also shown, to the lower left of the Milky Way, are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, two small neighboring galaxies. The halo of gas is shown with a radius of about 300,000 light years, although it may extend significantly further.

Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory was used to estimate that the mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it could be the solution to the “missing-baryon” problem for the Galaxy.

In a recent study, a team of five astronomers used data from Chandra, ESA’s XMM-Newton, and Japan’s Suzaku satellite to set limits on the temperature, extent and mass of the hot gas halo. Chandra observed eight bright X-ray sources located far beyond the Galaxy at distances of hundreds of millions of light years. The data revealed that X-rays from these distant sources are selectively absorbed by oxygen ions in the vicinity of the Galaxy. The nature of the absorption allowed the scientists to determine that the temperature of the absorbing halo is between 1 million and 2.5 million Kelvins.”

See the full article here.

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From NASA Chandra: “Spacecraft – Motion, Heat, and Energy

NASA Chandra

Not Dated
No Writer credit

“The spacecraft system provides the support structure and environment necessary for the telescope and the science instruments to work as an observatory.

Chandra exposed. No image credit.

In order to provide motion to the observatory, Chandra has two different sets of thrusters: one for propulsion and the other for momentum unloading. The propulsion thrusters were used immediately after launch to help propel Chandra into its final orbit, which is elliptical and very high in altitude. The momentum unloading thrusters are periodically used to apply torques to Chandra and, thereby, lower the accumulated momentum in its reaction wheels, which are used to control Chandra’s altitude.

To control the temperatures of critical components, Chandra’s thermal control system consists of a cooling radiator, insulators, heaters and thermostats. It is particularly important that the temperature near the X-ray mirrors be well controlled to keep the mirror in focus. The temperature in many parts of the spacecraft is continually monitored and reported back to mission control.

Chandra’s electrical power comes from its solar arrays. This energy is then stored in three banks of batteries and distributed in a carefully regulated manner to the Observatory by the electrical power system. The solar arrays generate approximately two kilowatts of power for the heaters, science instruments, computers, transmitters, etc.

See the full article with interactive features here.

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