1. Best of Chandra Images: Black Holes, Jets & Quasars
QuicktimeMPEG Black holes are so dense and compact that nothing -- not even light -- can escape. Just outside their grasp, though, black holes can alight galaxies by expelling infalling gas and stars (known as quasars), or generate powerful high-energy jets flowng from spiraling disks that surround them. This video presents some of the best Chandra observations of black holes, jets & quasars.
[Runtime: 1:11]
(NASA/CXC/SAO)
QuicktimeMPEG Black holes are so dense and compact that nothing -- not even light -- can escape. Just outside their grasp, though, black holes can alight galaxies by expelling infalling gas and stars (known as quasars), or generate powerful high-energy jets flowng from spiraling disks that surround them. This video presents some of the best Chandra observations of black holes, jets & quasars.
[Runtime: 1:11]
(NASA/CXC/SAO)
2. Scenario Dismissed by Chandra Results
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This sequence of artist's renderings shows the scenario ruled out by the latest Chandra results. In this model, a cluster with both low (red) and high (blue) mass stars is drawn toward the black hole. Eventually, the strong gravitational forces would rip the cluster apart, sending its constituent stars into orbit around the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:10]
View Stills
(Illustrations: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG
This sequence of artist's renderings shows the scenario ruled out by the latest Chandra results. In this model, a cluster with both low (red) and high (blue) mass stars is drawn toward the black hole. Eventually, the strong gravitational forces would rip the cluster apart, sending its constituent stars into orbit around the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:10]
View Stills
(Illustrations: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: Sagittarius A*
3. Animation of Stars Forming Around Black Hole
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This animation shows a disk of red and yellow gas around a supermassive black hole. As the view pulls back, the formation of stars in the outer regions of the disk is seen. These massive stars form when the gas becomes unstable, despite the black hole's enormous gravitational influence, and collapses inwards.
[Runtime: 0:23]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG
This animation shows a disk of red and yellow gas around a supermassive black hole. As the view pulls back, the formation of stars in the outer regions of the disk is seen. These massive stars form when the gas becomes unstable, despite the black hole's enormous gravitational influence, and collapses inwards.
[Runtime: 0:23]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: Sagittarius A*
4. Sequence of Black Hole Illustrations
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This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
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This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
5. Chandra Images of Elliptical Galaxies
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This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG
This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: NGC 4696
6. Chandra, Infrared, and Radio Images of NGC 4696
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This sequence of images shows NGC 4696, the elliptical galaxy at the center of the Centaurus galaxy cluster. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole, one of nine black holes studied recently using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. An infrared image, in green, reveals the stars in the elliptical galaxy. Next, the blue radio image shows high-energy jets generated by the black hole. Finally, Chandra's X-ray image in red traces hot gas located around the center of the galaxy. Enormous cavities in this gas were created by jets from the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:16]
View Stills
(X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/McMaster Univ./W.Harris; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/G.Taylor)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG
This sequence of images shows NGC 4696, the elliptical galaxy at the center of the Centaurus galaxy cluster. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole, one of nine black holes studied recently using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. An infrared image, in green, reveals the stars in the elliptical galaxy. Next, the blue radio image shows high-energy jets generated by the black hole. Finally, Chandra's X-ray image in red traces hot gas located around the center of the galaxy. Enormous cavities in this gas were created by jets from the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:16]
View Stills
(X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/McMaster Univ./W.Harris; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/G.Taylor)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: NGC 4696
7. Animation of Black Hole in Elliptical Galaxy
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This artist's animation depicts a journey into the center of an elliptical galaxy. After traveling past stars in the outer part of the galaxy, the supermassive black hole located at the bright center of the galaxy becomes visible. This black hole is surrounded by hot gas shown in red and yellow, which acts as fuel for the black hole engine. Power generated by the engine flows away from the black hole via jets of high-energy particles.
[Runtime: 0:25]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG
This artist's animation depicts a journey into the center of an elliptical galaxy. After traveling past stars in the outer part of the galaxy, the supermassive black hole located at the bright center of the galaxy becomes visible. This black hole is surrounded by hot gas shown in red and yellow, which acts as fuel for the black hole engine. Power generated by the engine flows away from the black hole via jets of high-energy particles.
[Runtime: 0:25]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: NGC 4696
8. Black Hole Devours a Neutron Star
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Scientists say they have seen tantalizing, first-time evidence of a black hole eating a neutron star-first stretching the neutron star into a crescent, swallowing it, and then gulping up crumbs of the broken star in the minutes and hours that followed.
[Runtime: 0:28]
(NASA/D.Berry)
Related Chandra Images:
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Scientists say they have seen tantalizing, first-time evidence of a black hole eating a neutron star-first stretching the neutron star into a crescent, swallowing it, and then gulping up crumbs of the broken star in the minutes and hours that followed.
[Runtime: 0:28]
(NASA/D.Berry)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: GRB 050709
9. Animation of a Black Hole Pulling Matter from Companion Star
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This animation shows the orbit of the binary system GRO J1655-40. Gas is being pulled away from a normal star, shown in blue, and crashes onto a red disk that is spinning around a central black hole. The animation then zooms in to show a closer view of the disk. Some of the gas in the disk spirals inwards and falls onto the black hole, generating light along the way, and some of it is blown away in a wind.
[Runtime: 0:19]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
QuicktimeMPEG
This animation shows the orbit of the binary system GRO J1655-40. Gas is being pulled away from a normal star, shown in blue, and crashes onto a red disk that is spinning around a central black hole. The animation then zooms in to show a closer view of the disk. Some of the gas in the disk spirals inwards and falls onto the black hole, generating light along the way, and some of it is blown away in a wind.
[Runtime: 0:19]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
10. Illustrations of Black Hole Eclipse
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These artist's representations, which are not to scale, explain how a supermassive black hole and the hot gas disk around it are eclipsed. The first illustration shows how light from the bright disk surrounding the black hole can directly reach Chandra. The second illustration demonstrates how this light can be blocked by a dense cloud of gas, which causes only reflected light from the disk to reach Chandra.
[Runtime: 0:15]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
Related Chandra Images:
QuicktimeMPEG
These artist's representations, which are not to scale, explain how a supermassive black hole and the hot gas disk around it are eclipsed. The first illustration shows how light from the bright disk surrounding the black hole can directly reach Chandra. The second illustration demonstrates how this light can be blocked by a dense cloud of gas, which causes only reflected light from the disk to reach Chandra.
[Runtime: 0:15]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
Related Chandra Images:
- Photo Album: NGC 1365
Revised: April 17, 2013