Antennae

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Chandra X-ray
Observatory Center
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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Antennae: Colliding galaxies about 60 million light years from Earth located in the constellation Corvus.
(Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC/G.Fabbiano et al.)

Caption: Chandra’s image of the central regions of The Antennae where intense star formation is occurring, shows dozens of bright point-like "ultraluminous" X-ray sources. These sources, which emit ten to several hundred times more X-ray power than similar sources in our galaxy, are thought to be either massive black holes, or black holes that are beaming energy toward Earth. The colors of the sources indicate the predominant energies of their X-rays, with red representing the lowest, green intermediate, and yellow and white the highest.

Scale: Image is 4.0 arcmin on a side.

Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image

CXC operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
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