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X-ray & Optical Images of Cygnus A
A ricocheting jet blasting from a giant black hole has been captured by Chandra. These images of Cygnus A show X-rays from Chandra and an optical view from Hubble of the galaxies and stars in the same field of view. Chandra's data reveal the presence of a powerful jet of particles and electromagnetic energy that has shot out from the black hole and slammed into a wall of hot gas, then ricocheted to punch a hole in a cloud of energetic particles, before it collides with another part of the gas wall.
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Columbia Univ./A. Johnson et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI)
A ricocheting jet blasting from a giant black hole has been captured by Chandra. These images of Cygnus A show X-rays from Chandra and an optical view from Hubble of the galaxies and stars in the same field of view. Chandra's data reveal the presence of a powerful jet of particles and electromagnetic energy that has shot out from the black hole and slammed into a wall of hot gas, then ricocheted to punch a hole in a cloud of energetic particles, before it collides with another part of the gas wall.
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Columbia Univ./A. Johnson et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI)
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Schematic Views of Cygnus A
The hole is visible because the path of the rebounding jet between hotspots E and D is almost directly along the line of sight to Earth, as shown by the schematic figure depicting the view of Cygnus A from above. A similar rebounding of the jet likely occurred between hotspots A and B but the hole is not visible because the path is not along the Earth's line of sight.
(Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
The hole is visible because the path of the rebounding jet between hotspots E and D is almost directly along the line of sight to Earth, as shown by the schematic figure depicting the view of Cygnus A from above. A similar rebounding of the jet likely occurred between hotspots A and B but the hole is not visible because the path is not along the Earth's line of sight.
(Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
Return to Cygnus A (January 9, 2019)
Revised: November 29, 2022