An overview of the Chandra mission and goals, Chandra's namesake, top 10 facts.
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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: CID-42

Zoom into the image of CID-42 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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CID-42
Evidence for a recoiling black hole has been found using data from Chandra (colored blue in this composite image), Hubble (gold), XMM-Newton, and several ground-based telescopes. This black hole kickback was caused either by a slingshot effect produced in a triple black hole system, or from the effects of gravitational waves produced after two supermassive black holes merged a few million years earlier. Of the 2,600 X-ray sources found in this survey, only CID-42 coincides with two very close, compact optical sources. In this image, the two sources are seen in the HST data, but they are too close for Chandra to resolve separately.

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