Latest Chandra X-ray Observatory Stories

Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies. The discovery, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, gives direct evidence for the existence of dark matter."This is the most energetic cosmic event, besides the Big Bang, which we know about," said team member Maxim Markevitch of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.These observations provide the strongest...

A critically important number that specifies the expansion rate of the Universe, the so-called Hubble constant, has been independently determined using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This new value matches recent measurements using other methods and extends their validity to greater distances, thus allowing astronomers to probe earlier epochs in the evolution of the Universe. "The reason this result is so significant is that we need the Hubble constant to tell us the size of the...

Scientists on a quest to find hidden black holes in the local universe have found surprisingly few. The observation implies that if these hidden black holes exist---and most scientists are convinced they do---they must be from the more distant, earlier universe, a concept that has interesting implications for galaxy evolution.This work constitutes the first census of the highest-energy part of the X-ray sky, where the most dust-enshrouded black holes are thought to shine. A team from NASA's...

Up to one quarter of the light brightening the universe comes from the massive crush of matter succumbing to the extreme gravity of black holes. Scientists have long understood that amount of light means black holes have the colossal appetite to ingest whole stars and huge amounts of gas. But a critical question has always remained: how they can continue to devour so much? For the first time, a team of scientists with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory led by Jon Miller has uncovered the...

New Haven, Conn. -- An international team of astronomers led by researchers at Yale has obtained key infrared observations that reveal the nature of quasar particle jets that originate just outside super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies and radiate across the spectrum from radio to X-ray wavelengths; a complementary study of jet X-ray emission led by astronomers at the University of Southampton, reaches the same conclusion. Both studies involve the jet of the quasar 3C273, famous...

By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Black holes turn out to be "green." These monstrous matter-sucking drains in space are the most fuel-efficient engines in the universe, researchers said on Monday. Just how efficient? If a car could use this kind of engine, it could theoretically go about a billion miles (1.6 billion km) on a gallon of gas, said Steve Allen of Stanford University in California. Unfortunately, no earthly car could do this, as black holes are fueled by matter...

By Deborah ZabarenkoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Black holes turn out to be "green."These monstrous matter-sucking drains in space are the most fuel-efficient engines in the universe, researchers said on Monday.Just how efficient? If a car could use this kind of engine, it could theoretically go about a billion miles (1.6 billion km) on a gallon of gas, said Steve Allen of Stanford University in California.Unfortunately, no earthly car could do this, as black holes are fueled by matter...

By Deborah ZabarenkoWASHINGTON - Black holes turn out to be "green."These monstrous matter-sucking drains in space are the most fuel-efficient engines in the universe, researchers said on Monday.Just how efficient? If a car could use this kind of engine, it could theoretically go about a billion miles (1.6 billion km) on a gallon of gas, said Steve Allen of Stanford University in California.Unfortunately, no earthly car could do this, as black holes are fueled by matter lured by...

A pair of supermassive black holes in the distant universe are intertwined and spiraling toward a merger that will create a single super-supermassive black hole capable of swallowing billions of stars, according to a new study by astronomers at the University of Virginia, Bonn University and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The study appears in the April 6, 2006 issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Black holes are among the oldest regions of the universe and hold clues to...

NASA -- Scientists using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected an extensive halo of hot gas around a quiescent spiral galaxy. This discovery is evidence that galaxies like our Milky Way are still accumulating matter from the gradual inflow of intergalactic gas. "What we are likely witnessing here is the ongoing galaxy formation process," said Kristian Pedersen of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and lead author of a report on the discovery. Chandra observations show...