Animations & Video

Normal Stars & Star Clusters

Best of Chandra Images: Stars & Star Clusters Chandra's X-ray observations are useful for understanding how the flaring activity of stars can change as stars evolve, and how the evolution of stars is changed if they are in a close binary system. This video presents some of the best Chandra observations of stars and star clusters.  View this animation

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A Multiwavelength Look At Orion Quicktime High Res (13.7 MB) Low Res (2.9 MB) MPEG High Res (3.9 MB) Low Res (2.9 MB) This sequence begins with Chandra's image of the Orion Nebula Cluster, the deepest X-ray image ever obtained of a star cluster. The image contains over 1,600 X-ray sources, most of them young stars. Zooming into a smaller region at the cluster's center, the view then dissolves to an optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope of the same region, followed by an infrared image made by ESO's Very Large Telescope, before returning to the Chandra data. [Runtime: 0:20] (X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/E.Feigelson & K.Getman et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/Rice University/C.O'Dell et al.; Infrared: ESO/VLT/M.McCaughrean et al.) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: Orion Nebula

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Animation of X-ray Flares from a "Young Sun" Quicktime High Res (15.6 MB) Low Res (2.6 MB) MPEG High Res (4.4 MB) Low Res (3.3 MB) *Broadcast Quality This animation shows how X-ray flares from a young star affect a planet-forming disk. Light from the young star is reflected off the inner part of the disk, making it glow. The view zooms in to show small white flares continually erupting on the surface of the young star. A set of huge white magnetic loops then erupts from the star and hits the inside edge of the disk, resulting in an extremely bright flare. X-rays from the flare then heat up the planet-forming disk and will later result in turbulence that affects the positions of planets. [Runtime: 0:23] View Stills (NASA/CXC/A.Hobart) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: Orion Nebula

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Constellation View of the Orion Nebula Quicktime High Res (21 MB) Low Res (6.9 MB) MPEG High Res (5.6 MB) Low Res (4.1 MB) This motion graphic starts with a wide-field, ground-based optical image of the Orion constellation. Next, the view zooms into an optical photograph taken by David Malin of the Orion Nebula before dissolving into a mosaic of Hubble Space Telescope images of a slightly smaller region. The sequence ends with Chandra's image of the Orion Nebula Cluster, the deepest X-ray image ever obtained of a star cluster. [Runtime: 0:28] (Ground-based: Akira Fujii; Optical Photograph: Copyright Anglo-Australian Observatory. Photograph by David Malin; HST: NASA/STScI/Rice Univ./C.O'Dell et al.; X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/E.Feigelson & K.Getman et al. Animation Credit: NASA/STScI/Bryan Presto) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: Orion Nebula

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Dissolve from Optical to X-ray Image of Westerlund 1 Quicktime High Res (5.5 MB) Low Res (1.2 MB) MPEG High Res (1.5 MB) Low Res (971.8 kb) This sequence begins with an optical view of the star cluster, known as Westerlund 1. When the view dissolves into Chandra's X-ray image, the unusual neutron star -- a dense whirling ball of neutrons about 12 miles in diameter -- appears very brightly. [Runtime: 0:08] (Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m MPG; X-ray: NASA/CXC/UCLA/M.Muno et al.) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: Westerlund 1

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Time-Lapse Movie of Chandra Observations Quicktime High Res (7.6 MB) Low Res (1.3 MB) MPEG High Res (3.3 MB) Low Res (2.4 MB) Zooming in from the full X-ray image, this sequence shows a time-lapse movie of Chandra data covering a smaller region of the Orion Nebula. Rapid variations in the young Orion stars can be seen during this 7-day-long observation (half the full Chandra observation) which contains 50 X-ray images. The star at the center of the image shows the strongest flare recorded among 30 stars with masses close to that of the Sun. This flare is about 10,000 times more powerful than the biggest flares seen on the Sun. If the Sun were placed at the distance of the Orion Nebula, its largest flares would not be visible in this movie. [Runtime: 0:16] (NASA/CXC/Penn State/E.Feigelson & K.Getman et al.) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: Orion Nebula

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Best of Chandra Images: Stars & Star Clusters Quicktime High Res (73.2 MB) Low Res (13.7 MB) MPEG High Res (10.4 MB) Low Res (7.9 MB) Chandra's X-ray observations are useful for understanding how the flaring activity of stars can change as stars evolve, and how the evolution of stars is changed if they are in a close binary system. This video presents some of the best Chandra observations of stars and star clusters. [Runtime: 0:53] (NASA/CXC/A.Hobart) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: Perseus Cluster

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Coronal Mass Ejections Quicktime High Res (10.3 MB) Low Res (2.2 MB) MPEG High Res (6.4 MB) Low Res (4.8 MB) Coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) are huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines that are ejected at high speeds (millions of miles per hour) from the Sun over the course of several hours. If a CME collides with the Earth, it can excite a geomagnetic storm that can damage spacecraft, cause electrical power outages, and endanger astronauts. [Runtime: 0:33] View Stills (NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)

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DB01-42 in context of the Milky Way Center Quicktime High Res (15.9 MB) Low Res (15.9 MB) MPEG High Res (4.6 MB) Low Res (3.2 MB) This series of images puts the cluster known as DB01-42 in context with Chandra's 900- by 400-light year mosaic of the Galactic Center. The view then transitions to radio emission from a smaller region that includes DB01-42, before showing infrared data of the same area, and ending with Chandra's X-ray close-up. Chandra�s X-ray data have helped astronomers identify DB01-42 as a member of the Galactic Center. It is about 26,000 light years away from Earth. [Runtime: 0:10] (X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern U./C.Law & F.Yusef-Zadeh; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/F.Zadeh et al.) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: DB00-6

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Into the Milky Way: Quintuplet Cluster Quicktime High Res (20.3 MB) Low Res (5.3 MB) MPEG High Res (4.6 MB) Low Res (3.4 MB) This sequence begins with Chandra's X-ray view of a 900 by 400 light year swath of the center of the Milky Way. It then zooms into a smaller region where large filamentary structures are seen in radio waves. The view moves in even closer to show the Quintuplet star cluster. Named for its five brightest stars at infrared wavelengths, the Quintuplet is known to be home to hundreds of stars. Several of these are very massive stars that are rapidly losing gas from their surfaces in high-speed stellar winds. Collisions from these winds are what astronomers believe to be the source for the point-like concentrations seen in the Chandra image. [Runtime: 0:24] (X-ray: NASA/CXC/NWU/C.Law & F.Zadeh; IR: NASA/ESO/STScI/D.Figer et al.; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/F.Zadeh et al.) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: Quintuplet Cluster

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Optical & X-ray Views of McNeil's Nebula Quicktime High Res (15.9 MB) Low Res (2.6 MB) MPEG High Res (4.8 MB) Low Res (4 MB) This sequence leads the viewer from a ground-based optical view around McNeil's Nebula through to Chandra's up-close X-ray image. It begins with the picture of the region that amateur astronomer Jay McNeil took with his 3-inch telescope, which led to the discovery of the nebula (and hence the name). The images then proceed to increasingly smaller optical views of the nebula and its immediate environment. The sequence ends by showing Chandra's observation of the source at the apex of McNeil's Nebula, which was seen to flare in X-rays. The X-ray data suggest the outburst was caused by an infall of material onto the star's surface from an orbiting disk of gas. [Runtime: 0:25] (Optical, wide-fields: Jay McNeil; Optical, close-up: NSF/NOAO/KPNO/A.Block et al.; X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIT/J.Kastner et al.) Related Chandra Images: Photo Album: McNeil's Nebula

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