Channel Title: Chandra X-ray Observatory Channel Description: Since its launch on July 23, 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, taking its place in the fleet of "Great Observatories." We hope you’ll contribute to this interactive forum and to our ongoing conversation about the work we do. On-topic discussion is encouraged. We ask that you express yourself in a civil manner and treat other users with respect. We will monitor and may remove posts consistent with the Smithsonian terms of use, as described at http://si.edu/Termsofuse#user-gen The Smithsonian may archive materials posted on this website pursuant to its document retention policies. By posting content, you are giving the Smithsonian and those authorized by the Smithsonian permission to use or modify it for any educational, promotional, or other standard museum purpose, in media of all kinds whether now known or later developed. <video> Data Sonification: Vela Pulsar (Composite) Description: The Vela Pulsar data has also been converted to sound through a process called data sonification. In this sonification, listen to a radar-like scan, clockwise from 12:00 of the image. Brightness is mapped to volume. Distance from the center is mapped to pitch (farther away is higher pitch). For the Chandra X-ray data, the bright inner region (violet) is mapped to a low synth sound, with 11 Hz oscillations matching the period of the pulsar. The dimmer outer region (blue) and jet are mapped to a wind-like sound. A long upper jet can be heard around 4 seconds in, and a bright, but much shorter lower jet can be heard around 20 seconds. For the Hubble optical data, the stars are mapped to notes on a plucked-type synth (where brighter stars are louder, and stars farther from the center are higher pitched). Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida) More at: https://chandra.si.edu/sound </video> <video> Tour: Black Hole Jet Stumbles Into Something in the Dark Description: Even matter ejected by black holes can run into things in the dark. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found an unusual mark from a giant black hole’s powerful jet striking an unidentified object in its path. The discovery was made in a galaxy called Centaurus A, or Cen A for short, which is located 12.4 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers have long studied Cen A because it has a supermassive black hole in its center sending out spectacular jets that stretch out across the entire galaxy. In this latest study, researchers determined that the jet is — at least in certain spots — moving at close to the speed of light. Using the deepest X-ray image ever made of Cen A, they also found a patch of V-shaped emission connected to a bright source of X-rays, something that had not been seen before in this galaxy. Called C4, this source is located close to the path of the jet from the supermassive black hole and is highlighted in the inset. The arms of the “V” are at least about 700 light-years long. For context, the nearest star to Earth is about 4 light-years away. While the researchers have ideas about what is happening, the identity of the object being blasted is a mystery because it is too distant for details of it to be seen, even in images from the current most powerful telescopes. The incognito object being rammed may be a massive star, either by itself or with a companion star. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/cena </video> <video> Tour: NASA's Chandra, Hubble Tune Into 'Flame-Throwing' Guitar Nebula Description: Normally found only in heavy metal bands or certain post-apocalyptic films, a “flame-throwing guitar” has now been spotted moving through space. Astronomers have captured movies of this extreme cosmic object using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. The new movie of Chandra data helps break down what is playing out in the Guitar Nebula. X-rays from Chandra show a filament of energetic matter and antimatter particles, about two light-years or 12 trillion miles long, blasting away from the pulsar. Astronomers have nicknamed the structure connected to the pulsar PSR B2224+65 as the “Guitar Nebula” because of its distinct resemblance to the instrument in glowing hydrogen light. The guitar shape comes from bubbles blown by particles ejected from the pulsar through a steady wind as it travels through space. At the tip of the guitar is the pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star left behind after the collapse of a massive star. As it hurtles through space it is pumping out a flame-like filament of particles and X-ray light that astronomers have captured with Chandra. How does space produce something so bizarre? The combination of two extremes — fast rotation and high magnetic fields of pulsars — leads to particle acceleration and high-energy radiation that creates matter and antimatter particles, as electron and positron pairs. In this situation, the usual process of converting mass into energy, famously determined by Albert Einstein's E = mc2 equation, is reversed. Here, energy is being converted into mass to produce the particles. Particles spiraling along magnetic field lines around the pulsar create the X-rays that Chandra detects. As the pulsar and its surrounding nebula of energetic particles has flown through space, they have collided with denser regions of gas. This allows the most energetic particles to escape the confines of the guitar nebula and fly to the right of the pulsar, creating the filament of X-rays as they fly through space. When those particles escape, they latch onto magnetic field lines in the interstellar medium, that is, the space in between stars. They spiral around and flow along the magnetic field lines, in this case to the right of the pulsar. Astronomers will continue to tune into the Guitar Nebula to see what plays out next. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/guitar </video> <video> Quick Look: Black Hole Jet Stumbles Into Something in the Dark Description: A jet from a giant black hole is slamming into an unidentified object in its path. Centaurus A is well known for having jets that stretch across the entire galaxy. The deepest image ever from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed something new. An unusual V-shaped patch reveals the jet is slamming into an object that cannot be seen. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/cena </video> <video> Quick Look: Black Hole Destroys Star and Goes After Another Description: A giant black hole has torn apart a star and now may be going after another one. The expanding debris field is pummeling an object as it orbits the black hole. This result links two cosmic mysteries scientists were not sure to be connected. Astronomers used NASA’s Chandra and other telescopes to make this discovery. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/tde </video> <video> Tour: Black Hole Destroys Star and Goes After Another Description: A massive black hole has torn apart one star and is now using that stellar wreckage to pummel another star or smaller black hole that used to be in the clear. This discovery, made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, helps astronomers link two mysteries where there had previously only been hints of a connection. In 2019, astronomers witnessed the signal of a star that got too close to a black hole and was destroyed by the black hole’s gravitational forces. Once shredded, the star’s remains began circling the black hole in a disk in a type of stellar graveyard. Over a few years, however, this disk has expanded outward and is now directly in the path of a star, or possibly a stellar-mass black hole, orbiting the massive black hole at a previously safe distance. The orbiting star is now repeatedly crashing through the debris disk, about once every 48 hours, as it circles. When it does, the collision causes bursts of X-rays that astronomers captured with Chandra. Like a diver repeatedly going into a pool and creating a splash every time she enters the water, the star striking the disk creates a huge ‘splash’ of gas and X-rays. As the star orbits around the black hole, it does this over and over again. Scientists have documented many cases where an object gets too close to a black hole and gets torn apart in a single burst of light. Astronomers call these “tidal disruption events,” or TDEs. In recent years, astronomers have also discovered a new class of bright flashes from the centers of galaxies, which are detected only in X-rays and repeat many times. These events are also connected to supermassive black holes, but astronomers could not explain what caused the semi-regular bursts of X-rays. They dubbed these “quasi-periodic eruptions,” or QPEs. This discovery gives astronomers evidence that TDEs and QPEs can be different phases of the same phenomenon. In addition to Chandra, the researchers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, NICER telescope aboard the International Space Station, and the Neil Gehrels Swift Telescope. Astronomers will continue to look for more of these events to learn more about how black holes grow, and to study the prevalence and distances of objects in close orbits around massive black holes. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/tde </video> <video> Quick Look: NASA Missions Spot Cosmic 'Wreath' Displaying Stellar Circle of Life Description: A new cosmic wreath is being released for the holiday season. NGC 602 is a star cluster in one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. X-rays from Chandra show massive young stars illuminating dark clouds of dust. Combined with James Webb, these data reveal more about the lifecycle of stars. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/ngc602 </video> <video> Tour: NASA Missions Spot Cosmic 'Wreath' Displaying Stellar Circle of Life Description: Most stars form in collections or groups, called clusters or associations, that include very massive stars. These giant stars send out large amoSince antiquity, wreaths have symbolized the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It is fitting then that one of the best places for astronomers to learn more about the stellar lifecycle resembles a giant holiday wreath itself. The star cluster NGC 602 lies on the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way about 200,000 light-years from Earth. The stars in NGC 602 have fewer heavier elements compared to the Sun and most of the rest of the Galaxy. Instead, the conditions within NGC 602 mimic those for stars found billions of years ago when the Universe was much younger. This new image combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope. The dark ring-like outline of the wreath seen in JWST data is made up of dense clouds of filled dust. Meanwhile, X-rays from Chandra show young, massive stars that are illuminating the wreath, sending high-energy light into interstellar space. These X-rays are powered by winds flowing from the young, massive stars that are sprinkled throughout the cluster. The extended cloud in the Chandra data likely comes from the overlapping X-ray glow of thousands of young, low-mass stars in the cluster. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/ngc602 </video> <video> Data Sonification: Vela Pulsar (Optical Only) Description: Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida) More at: https://chandra.si.edu/sound </video> <video> Tour: Chandra Finds Galaxy Cluster That Crosses the Streams Description: Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have found a galaxy cluster has two pairs of streams of superheated gas crossing one another. This result shows that, unlike a famous line from a popular series of movies, crossing the streams does not necessarily end in disaster. In fact, it may lead to the creation of new structures. Researchers have discovered a pair of enormous, comet-like tails of hot gas — spanning over 1.6 million light-years long — trailing behind a galaxy within the galaxy cluster called Zwicky 8338, or Z8338 for short. This tail was spawned as the galaxy had some of its gas stripped off by the hot gas it is hurtling through. What makes this remarkable is that this is the second pair of tails trailing behind a galaxy in this system. Previously, astronomers discovered a shorter pair of tails from a different galaxy nearby to this latest one. This newer and longer set of tails was only seen because of a deeper observation with Chandra that revealed the fainter X-rays. Astronomers also found evidence that the streams trailing behind the speeding galaxies have crossed one another, causing the shorter pair of tails to be detached from the galaxy they are trailing. These galaxies are in motion because they were part of two galaxy clusters that collided with each other to create Z8338. This makes Z8338 a chaotic landscape of galaxies, superheated gas, and shock waves, which are similar to sonic booms created by supersonic jets. Why is this important? Z8338 is helping to teach astronomers how these galaxy clusters, which are some of the biggest objects in the Universe held together by gravity, evolve over time. More specifically, this result gives them information about how the galaxies that are part of the cluster interact. This includes how this complex system can allow new stars, planets, and other structures to grow in the future. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/z8338 </video> <video> Tour: Exoplanets Need to be Prepared for Extreme Space Weather Description: Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton that examined the effects of X-rays on potential planets around the most common type of stars. Astronomers found that only a planet with greenhouse gases in its atmosphere like Earth and at a relatively large distance away from its host star would have a chance to support life as we know it around a nearby star. Wolf 359 is a red dwarf with a mass about a tenth that of the Sun. Red dwarf stars are the most common stars in the universe and live for billions of years, providing ample time for life to develop. At a distance of only 7.8 light-years away, Wolf 359 is also one of the closest stars to the Solar System. The researchers think that Wolf 359 can help them unlock the secrets around stars and habitability because it is so close and belongs to such an important class of stars. Because red dwarfs are the most prevalent types of stars, astronomers have looked hard to find exoplanets around them. While some astronomers said they have evidence for two planets in orbit around Wolf 359 from optical telescopes, the jury is still out on those claims. Regardless, even the possibility of planets around Wolf 359 is intriguing. Astronomers decided to use NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton to see what the environment for any potential planets would be like there. They found that Wolf 359 is producing enough damaging radiation that only a planet with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in its atmosphere — and located at a relatively large distance from the star — would likely be able to sustain life. The team looked at what astronomers call the “habitable zone,” the region around a star where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface, for Wolf 359. They found that the output of high-energy radiation from Wolf 359 means that any planet located in the habitable zone around it is unlikely to have a significant atmosphere long enough for multicellular life, as we know it on Earth, to form and survive. That is, unless that planet is near the habitable zone's outer edge of a planet and has a significant greenhouse effect. This result helps astronomers know not only where to look for habitable planets, but also what other factors may be necessary to study to understand where life may be possible beyond the Solar System. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/wolf359 </video> <video> Quick Look: Exoplanets Need to be Prepared for Extreme Space Weather Description: NASA’s Chandra has reported on space weather around another star and it’s extreme. Wolf 359 is a red dwarf, one of the closest to the Solar System at 7.8 light years away. Astronomers found damaging amounts of high-energy radiation are released from the star. They think a planet needs to be far enough away with a thick atmosphere to be habitable. More: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2025/wolf359 </video> <video> 'Flame-Throwing' Guitar Nebula Description: Is there anything more fire than a flaming guitar in space?!🔥🎸 Normally found only in heavy metal bands or certain post-apocalyptic films, a "flame-throwing guitar" has been spotted moving through space. Astronomers have captured movies of this extreme cosmic object using NASA's Chandra and Hubble. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/guitar/ Video description: The video opens showing pulsar B2224 and the Guitar Nebula in X-ray and optical light. A timelapse of four separate multiwavelength images, representing data spanning roughly 20 years, plays in a looping manner. The guitar shape is undeniable, and the pulsar situated at the head of the guitar has released a long filament of energetic matter and antimatter particles approximately 12 trillion miles long. This energetic, X-ray blast shoots from the bright white dot at the tip of the guitar’s headstock, all the way out to our upper righthand corner in bright red. When the four images are shown in sequence, the density of the X-ray blast filament appears to fluctuate. The scene switches to a version of the movie where the guitar shape is outlined by a white, illustrated line drawing. The next scene shows an optical image from Hubble and Palomar. An illustrated white box is superimposed around the head of the guitar and part of the guitar neck. The contents of the box are labeled as Hubble. Inside the box, four Hubble images, ranging from 1994 to 2021, are shown in sequence. The video returns to the multiwavelength timelapse which loops to the end. X-ray, Chandra: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./M. de Vries et al.; Optical: (Hubble) NASA/ESA/STScI and (Palomar) Hale Telescope/Palomar/CalTech; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare Music: "Fire Brawl," Adrian Nicholas Valdez [SESAC], Universal Production Music </video> <video> Data Sonification: Vela Pulsar (X-ray Only) Description: Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida) More at: https://chandra.si.edu/sound </video> <video> Tour: Planets Beware: NASA Unburies Danger Zones of Star Cluster Description: Most stars form in collections or groups, called clusters or associations, that include very massive stars. These giant stars send out large amounts of high-energy radiation, which can disrupt relatively fragile disks of dust and gas that are in the process of coalescing to form new planets. A team of astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, along with ultraviolet, optical and infrared data, to show where some of the most treacherous places in a star cluster may be, where planets’ chances to form are diminished. The target of the observations was Cygnus OB2, which is the nearest large cluster of stars to our Sun — at a distance of about 4,600 light-years. Cygnus OB2 contains hundreds of massive stars as well as thousands of lower-mass stars. Astronomers used Chandra observations to map out the diffuse X-ray glow in between the stars and create a catalog of the young stars in the cluster. They then combined this catalog with others using optical and infrared data to create the best census of young stars yet in Cygnus OB2. The researchers found that there is a lot of high-energy radiation produced by stars and planets in these crowded stellar environments. They determined that the X-rays plus intense ultraviolet light in Cygnus OB2 would have a devastating impact on planetary disks and systems in the process of forming there. How would this happen? Planet-forming disks around stars naturally fade away over time. However, if these disks are close to massive stars that pump out lots of X-ray and ultraviolet radiation, this process of the disk destruction is accelerated. Instead of taking 5 or 10 million years, the disks around these giant stars are wiped out much sooner, possibly before planets have had time to form. The disks also disappear more quickly in regions where the stars are more closely packed together. More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/cygob2 </video>

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Since its launch on July 23, 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, taking its place in the fleet of "Great Observatories."

We hope you’ll contribute to this interactive forum and to our ongoing conversation about the work we do.

On-topic discussion is encouraged. We ask that you express yourself in a civil manner and treat other users with respect. We will monitor and may remove posts consistent with the Smithsonian terms of use, as described at http://si.edu/Termsofuse#user-gen

The Smithsonian may archive materials posted on this website pursuant to its document retention policies. By posting content, you are giving the Smithsonian and those authorized by the Smithsonian permission to use or modify it for any educational, promotional, or other standard museum purpose, in media of all kinds whether now known or later developed.

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