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Closeup of Chandra Image with Optical Contours
(Credit: NASA/GSFC/T.Brown et al.)
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M31:
Closer Look Reveals Andromeda's Black Hole Not As "Cool" As Believed
Credit: X-ray: (NASA/SAO/CXC/M.Garcia et al.) Optical: (NASA/GSFC/T.Brown et al.)
Closer Look Reveals Andromeda's Black Hole Not As "Cool" As Believed
Credit: X-ray: (NASA/SAO/CXC/M.Garcia et al.) Optical: (NASA/GSFC/T.Brown et al.)
Visual Description:
Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope images of two recently detected emitting globular star clusters - so called because of their spherical shape - were used as a cross-check to determine the position of X-ray sources near the center of the Andromeda galaxy to an accuracy ten times greater than before. The inset shows the three Chandra sources closest to the supermassive black hole, overlaid with the intensity contours from the HST image (red). The location of supermassive black hole is thought to be in the middle of the peanut-shaped intensity contours, and very close to the Northern-most of the three Chandra sources.
These highly accurate positions show that the very cool X-ray source (blue) previously identified with the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy is actually about 10 light years south of the center. A second, hotter X-ray source, is found to be at a position consistent with the position of the super massive black hole. The globular clusters are outside the field of view in this image.
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Visual Description:
This image shows the central portion of the Andromeda Galaxy in a larger X-ray field (upper left) with a pullout to a smaller field showing X-ray sources and optical light contours (lower right). At the center of the upper image, there is a bright, circular object that resembles a star. Surrounding this star, there are numerous small, bright dots, which appear to be evenly distributed across the image. These dots can be seen in different shades of purple, with some appearing brighter or dimmer than others and some with bright yellow cores. The blue dot in the center of the image is an unusually "cool" million degree X-ray source of unknown nature. Numerous other X-ray sources are also apparent. Most of these are probably due to X-ray binary systems, in which a neutron star or black hole is in a close orbit around a normal star. The pullout shows the three Chandra X-ray Observatory sources (white-gray) closest to the supermassive black hole, overlaid with the intensity contours from the Hubble image (red). The location of the supermassive black hole is thought to be in the middle of the peanut-shaped intensity contours, and very close to the northernmost of the three Chandra sources.
Revised: September 09, 2025