|
|
More Images of The Antennae (NGC4038/4039)
|
Optical Images of the
Antennae
Left. An optical image of the Antennae galaxies
( NGC 4038/4039) - so named because a pair of long
tails of luminous matter resembles an insect's
antennae. The tails are caused by a collision between
the galaxies, which is seen in more detail in the
Hubble Space Telescope image on the right.
Right: The cores of the colliding galaxies (the orange
blobs, left and right of image center) are connected by
a dark, wide band of dust, The looping, spiral-like
patterns traced by bright blue star clusters, show the
result of a vigorous star formation triggered by the
collision.
This natural-color image is a composite of four
separately filtered images taken with the Wide Field
Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), on January 20, 1996.
(Credit:
NASA/STScI/B.Whitmore)
|
|
High and Low Energy X-Ray Images of
the Antennae
The high-energy or hard X-ray image (right) shows X
rays from high temperature gas (25 million degree
Celsius or more), whereas the low energy or soft X-ray
image (left) is produced mainly by gas at temperatures
of 1 to 25 million degrees Celsius. Note that the
point-like sources, which are produced by neutron stars
and black holes pulling gas off nearby stars, stand out
in the hard X-ray image, whereas the superbubbles
formed by the merging of many supernova remnants, are
prominent in the soft X-ray image. The colors represent
X-ray intensities, with yellow the most intense, then
red, then blue.
Chandra ACIS image.
(Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC/G.Fabbiano
et al.)
|
|
Chandra-Hubble Comparison for the
Antennae
In the image on the left, the contours represent X-ray
intensity. The colors also represent X-ray intensity,
with white the brightest, then yellow, red and blue. In
the image on the right, the X-ray contours from Chandra
are overlaid on a Hubble Space Telescope image.
Scale: Images are 2.5 arcmin on a side.
(Credit: Chandra:
NASA/SAO/CXC/G.Fabbiano
Hubble: NASA/STScI/B.Whitmore)
|
|
Rosat Image of Antennae
X-ray Image of the Antennae made by the
Rontgensatellite (Rosat) High Resolution Imager
Scale: Image is 4 arcmin on a side.
(Credit: Rosat/G.Fabbiano et
al.)
|
|
ISO Infrared Image of
Antennae
This infrared image, taken by the European Space
Agency's Iinfrared Space Observatory, shows gas and
dust heated to several hundred degrees by young stars.
One of the Antennae galaxies shows a large ring of
intense starmaking around the central nucleus. This
feature is absent in the other galaxy. Another region
of star formation extends along a line marking the
overlap of the disks of the two galaxies, where the
collision is strongest.
Scale: Image is 13.7 arcmin on a side.
(Credit: ESA/ISO/L.Vigroux et
al.)
|
|
Optical (green & white) + Radio
(blue) image of the Antennae.
The radio emission is from neutral hydrogen
atoms.
(Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF/CTIO/J.
Hibbard et al.)
|
|
Chandra X-ray Image with Scale
Bar
Scale bar = 1 arcmin
(Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC/G.Fabbiano
et al.)
|
Return to The
Antennae (NGC4038/4039) (16 Aug 00)
|
