Chandra Release - April 30, 2013

Visual Description: NGC 6240

The X-ray and optical image of the merging spiral galaxies NGC 6240 features a deep purple diffuse background and a few small dots of light scattered across the image. In the center of the image, there is a large, bright galaxy that looks to be in the process of colliding with another smaller galaxy. They form a small butterfly shape in the center of the optical band across the middle.  The colors in the image are predominantly purple, grey, brown and white, with occasional hints of blue and yellow. In this composite image of NGC 6240, X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory that reveal the hot gas cloud are colored purple. These data have been combined with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows long tidal tails from the merging galaxies, extending to the right and bottom of the image.