1. Tour of Cepheus B
Quicktime

• High Res (35.4 MB)
• Low Res (14 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (11.7 MB)
• Low Res (9.1 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (823.8 kb)

A new study from two of NASA's "Great Observatories" provides fresh insight into how some stars are born, along with a beautiful new image of a stellar nursery in our own Milky Way Galaxy. While astronomers have long understood that stars and planets form from the collapse of a cloud of gas, the main causes of this process have remained mysterious. Now, research on an object known as Cepheus B, a cloud of hydrogen about 2400 light years from Earth, helps answer that question. X-rays seen by Chandra show where the young stars in the cloud are, while infrared emission observed by Spitzer reveals whether these stars contain planet-forming disks around them. Taken together, these data reveal that radiation from massive stars is triggering a new generation of stars to be born. This happens more often than previously thought.
[Runtime: 1:18]
(X-ray (NASA/CXC/PSU/K. Getman et al.); IR (NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J. Wang et al.))

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Cepheus B

2. Tour of Crab Nebula
Quicktime

• High Res (80.6 MB)
• Low Res (13.7 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (11 MB)
• Low Res (8.4 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (781.5 kb)

The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the night sky. First observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054 A.D., and possibly others, this supernova remnant and its neutron star have become favorite targets for amateur and professional astronomers alike. This version of the Crab Nebula combines data from three different telescopes. X-ray data from Chandra, in light blue, show the super-dense neutron star that is the core of the exploded star, which is shooting a blizzard of high-energy particles into the expanding debris field. This super-energetic outflow is striking the cooler gas and dust seen in optical data from Hubble as well as infrared light from Spitzer. The Crab Nebula contains incredibly intriguing science, and provides perhaps one of the most stunning images in all of astronomy.
[Runtime: 0.51]
(X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward; Optical: NASA/ESA/ASU/J.Hester & A.Loll; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Minn./R.Gehrz)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Crab Nebula

3. Tour of E0102-72.3
Quicktime

• High Res (59.6 MB)
• Low Res (14.8 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (12 MB)
• Low Res (9.2 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (748.5 kb)

The supernova remnant known as E0102 was one of the targets that Chandra first observed after its launch in 1999. Now, some ten years later, new X-ray data from Chandra have been used to produce this spectacular image. E0102 is located about 190 thousand light-years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. It was created when a star that was much more massive than the sun, exploded, an event that would have been visible from the southern hemisphere on Earth over one thousand years ago. The information captured in this new image, which includes optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals new clues about the geometry of the remnant. This in turn helps astronomers better understand the details of the explosion that created the remnant we see today.
[Runtime: 0.56]
(Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/MIT/D.Dewey et al. & NASA/CXC/SAO/J.DePasquale); Optical (NASA/STScI))

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: E0102-72.3

4. Tour of Galactic Center
Quicktime

• High Res (34.5 MB)
• Low Res (13.6 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (10.8 MB)
• Low Res (8.4 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (766.5 kb)

This image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals a wealth of exotic objects and high-energy features at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. In this new and deep image from Chandra, red represents lower-energy X-rays, green shows the medium range, and blue indicates the higher-energy X-rays Chandra can detect. The hundreds of small dots show emission from material around black holes and other dense stellar objects like neutron stars. A supermassive black hole -- some four million times more massive than the Sun -- resides within the bright region to the right of center. The diffuse X-ray light comes from gas heated to millions of degrees by outflows from the supermassive black hole, winds from giant stars, and stellar explosions.
[Runtime: 0.50]
(Credit: NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Galactic Center

5. Tour of Galactic Ridge
Quicktime

• High Res (76 MB)
• Low Res (11.6 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (8 MB)
• Low Res (5.3 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (496.8 kb)

This sequence begins with an infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope of the central region of the Milky Way. We then zoom into a region about 1.4 degrees away from the center of the galaxy where the Chandra X-ray Observatory focused its attention for about twelve days' worth of time. This region is known as the Galactic Ridge, because earlier X-ray observatories found a structure of diffuse emission stretching across the plane of the galaxy. The new long Chandra observation shows that this X-ray haze is actually composed of thousands of individual sources, like stars and binary systems.
[Runtime: 0.37]
(X-ray (NASA/CXC/TUM/M.Revnivtsev et al.); IR (NASA/JPL-Caltech/GLIMPSE Team))

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Galactic X-ray Ridge

6. Tour of GRS 1915
Quicktime

• High Res (134.3 MB)
• Low Res (26.6 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (13.6 MB)
• Low Res (10.8 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (850.8 kb)

We start with an optical and infrared image that shows the crowded area around the object known as GRS 1915+105, or GRS 1915 for short. Next is a close-up of the Chandra image of GRS 1915, which is located near the plane of the Milky Way. GRS 1915 is a so-called micro-quasar that contains a black hole about fourteen times the mass of the sun, which in turn is pulling material off a nearby companion star. With its high-energy transmission grating, Chandra has observed GRS 1915 eleven times since 1999. These studies reveal that a jet from the black hole in GRS 1915 may be periodically choked off when a hot wind is driven off the disk surrounding the black hole. Conversely, once the wind dies down, the jet can re-emerge. These results suggest that this type of black hole may have a mechanism for regulating the rate at which it grows.
[Runtime: 1.03]
(X-ray (NASA/CXC/Harvard/J.Neilsen); Optical & IR (Palomar DSS2))

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: GRS 1915+105

7. Tour of Hydra A
Quicktime

• High Res (16.9 MB)
• Low Res (10.5 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (11.9 MB)
• Low Res (7.2 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (849 kb)

This composite image of the Hydra A galaxy cluster shows 10-million-degree gas observed by Chandra and jets of radio emission observed by the Very Large Array. The galaxies in the cluster are seen in optical light by two ground-based telescopes. At the center of Hydra A is a supermassive black hole that has experienced powerful outbursts. These outbursts pushed the material surrounding the black hole, creating giant cavities seen in the Chandra data. These cavities were then filled with material from jets seen in the radio data. The Chandra data reveal that the gas located along the direction of the radio jets is enhanced with iron and other metals. Scientists think that these elements, vital for stars, planets, and ultimately life, were forged in supernova explosions in the large galaxy at the center of the cluster.
[Runtime: 0.56]
(X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Waterloo/C.Kirkpatrick et al.; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Optical: Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope/DSS)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Hydra A

8. Tour of JKCS041
Quicktime

• High Res (20.9 MB)
• Low Res (10.7 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (11.6 MB)
• Low Res (8.3 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (824.2 kb)

The most distant galaxy cluster yet has been found some 10.2 billion light-years from Earth. This record-breaking object is known as JKCS041, and is seen as it was when the Universe was just one quarter of its present age. This composite image of the object contains x-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, shown as the blue, diffuse cloud, as well as optical and infrared data from ground-based telescopes. Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity. Scientists have calculated how quickly these clusters could start assembling after the Big Bang. And JKCS041 lies just inside that window. Future observations will provide scientists with an opportunity to learn about how the Universe evolved at this crucial stage.
[Runtime: 0.54]
(X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF/S.Andreon et al Optical: DSS; ESO/VLT)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: JKCS041

9. Tour of M101
Quicktime

• High Res (66.4 MB)
• Low Res (13 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (10.4 MB)
• Low Res (8.1 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (272.1 kb)

This image of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 is a composite of observations from NASA's three Great Observatories: the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Chandra's view in X-ray light is seen as blue and reveals multi-million-degree gas, exploded stars, and material colliding around black holes. In red, Spitzer's view in infrared light highlights the heat emitted by dust lanes in the galaxy where stars can form. The yellow shows Hubble's data in visible light. Most of this light also comes from stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes. Such multi-wavelength images allow astronomers to see how features in one wavelength match up with those in another, and give everyone a more complete picture of this beautiful galaxy.
[Runtime: 0:48]
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/JHU/K.Kuntz et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/JHU/K. Kuntz et al; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/K. Gordon)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: M101

10. Tour of MacsJ0717
Quicktime

• High Res (50.3 MB)
• Low Res (12.8 MB)

MPEG

• High Res (11 MB)
• Low Res (8.6 MB)

Audio Only

• Audio (686.1 kb)

This image contains one of the most complex galaxy clusters known, which is located about 5.4 billion light years from Earth. In this system known as MacsJ0717 for short, 4 separate galaxy clusters have collided. This is the first time such a complex crash of galaxy clusters has been documented. In this composite image, data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal the cluster's hot gas, while an optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the individual galaxies in the system. The gas in this image is color-coded to show temperature, just like a weather map for Earth. In this case however, the temperatures range from millions to tens of millions of degrees, where the coolest gas here is colored red, the hottest gas is blue, and the temperatures in between are purple.
[Runtime: 0.51]
(X-ray (NASA/CXC/IfA/C. Ma et al.); Optical (NASA/STScI/IfA/C. Ma et al.))

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: MACSJ0717.5+3745