An overview of the Chandra mission and goals, Chandra's namesake, top 10 facts.
Classroom activities, printable materials, interactive games & more.
Overview of X-ray Astronomy and X-ray sources: black holes to galaxy clusters.
All Chandra images released to the public listed by date & by category
Current Chandra press releases, status reports, interviews & biographies.
A collection of multimedia, illustrations & animations, a glossary, FAQ & more.
A collection of illustrations, animations and video.
Chandra discoveries in an audio/video format.
Chandra Zoom: Lyman Alpha Blobs

Zoom into the image of Lyman Alpha Blobs and see all it's details up close and personal. Use the slider bar to zoom in close or zoom out and see the bigger picture.

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Lyman Alpha Blobs
Researchers have used Chandra to study 29 “blobs” of hydrogen gas in the early Universe. The X-ray data (blue) reveal the presence of growing supermassive black holes inside five of these blobs (one of which is shown in the left panel). Along with bursts of star formation, the black holes are responsible for heating the blobs’ gas – depicted in the artist’s illustration on the right. The results suggest that blobs represent a stage when the galaxies and black holes are just starting to switch off their rapid growth because of these heating processes.

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