Composite Image Shows Emissions Driven By Black Hole
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomy is more than merely using optical telescopes to take pretty pictures of distant nebulae and galaxies. Researchers also seek to understand complex systems in the universe...
Latest Chandra X-ray Observatory Stories
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has identified the cause of Kepler's supernova, the famous explosion first discovered by Johannes Kepler in 1604. The image above shows low (red), intermediate (green) and high (blue) energy X-rays with a star field background from the Digitized Sky Survey. It is already known that the supernova is a Type Ia, which is the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf star. Type Ia's are important cosmic...
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two X-ray space observatories, NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton, have teamed up to measure definitively, for the first time, the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our sun. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The supermassive black hole lies at the dust and gas-filled heart of a galaxy called NGC 1365, and it is...
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The remnant appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The remnant, called W49B, is about a thousand years old as seen from...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A rare explosion from a rotating star may have created the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory claim that matter was ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star, creating a supernova remnant, W49B, which may contain a young black hole. "W49B is the first of its kind to be discovered in the galaxy," said Laura Lopez, who led the study at the...
Watch the video "Chandra Captures Neutron Star In Action" redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online New video footage of the Vela pulsar, a neutron star located approximately 1,000 light-years from Earth, suggests that the pulsar could be slowly wobbling as it spins, NASA officials said on Monday. Formed following the collapse of a massive star, the Vela pulsar is approximately 12 miles in diameter and capable of making a complete rotation in under 90 milliseconds. The...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA has released a pair of new images captured by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) – one depicting a pair of black holes lurking inside a spiral galaxy, and the other featuring a look at the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The two pictures, which were revealed Monday at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Long Beach, California, “showcase why NuSTAR is giving us an unprecedented look at the...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Unlike with some blockbuster films, the sequel to a movie from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is better than the first. This latest movie features a deeper look at a fast moving jet of particles produced by a rapidly rotating neutron star, and may provide new insight into the nature of some of the densest matter in the universe. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The hero of this Chandra movie is the...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, set its X-ray eyes on a spiral galaxy and caught the brilliant glow of two black holes lurking inside. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The new image is being released Monday along with NuSTAR's view of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, Calif. "These new images showcase why...
[ Watch the Video: The Diner at the Center of the Galaxy ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft has detected the Milky Way's central black hole eating a Thanksgiving snack. Supermassive black holes like the one in the middle of our galaxy sustain themselves by swallowing stars, planets, asteroids, comets and clouds of gas that wander around the galaxy. The space agency's new spacecraft allowed it to take an observation of the black hole...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA has released a new image of the Cygnus OB2 star cluster, detailing its structure and evolution. The Milky Way, as well as other galaxies in the universe, are home to numerous young star clusters with hundreds of thousands of hot, massive, young stars known as O and B stars. Cygnus OB2 is one of these clusters that contains no less than 60 O-type stars and upwards of a thousand B-type stars. Using the Chandra X-Ray...
Latest Chandra X-ray Observatory Reference Libraries
X-Ray Astronomy -- Although the more energetic X-rays (E > 30 keV) can penetrate the air at least for distances of a few meters (they would never have been detected and medical X-ray machines would not work if this was not the case) the Earth's atmosphere is thick enough that virtually none are able to penetrate from outer space all the way to the Earth's surface. X-rays in the 0.5 - 5 keV range, where most celestial sources give off the bulk of their energy, can be stopped by a few...
Chandra X-ray Observatory -- NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. Chandra is designed to observe X-rays from high-energy regions of the universe, such as the remnants of exploded stars. The Observatory has three major parts: (1) the X-ray telescope, whose mirrors focus X-rays from celestial objects; (2) the science instruments which record the X-rays so...
![NASA\](/media/gallery/chandra-x-ray-observatory/thumbs/thumbs_w49b.jpg "NASA\")
