Chandra Release - February 2, 2022 Visual Description: Expanse of Light To fully investigate cosmic objects and phenomena, scientists need telescopes that can detect light across the electromagnetic spectrum. In this release, a gallery of images highlights the ways that those different types of light can be combined. These images employ data from a variety of telescopes, on the ground and in space, that detect light from across the spectrum. All include X-ray data from Chandra's observatory. The first image resembles a sparse brick-orange cloud in the shape of a cross, with a flash of white light at its core. The white light is ringed by faint concentric circles which resemble ripples from a raindrop in still water. Along the horizontal arms of the cross shape is a wavy string of purple clouds. These connect with the white core at the center. This image depicts R Aquarii, a pair of stars that orbit one another, inside a cloud of gas. The bright light at the core is a white dwarf star with a relatively cool temperature, pulling material from a red giant star. The string of purple clouds is a jet of material shooting from the resulting explosion, observed by Chandra. The brick-orange cloud, observed by the Hubble Space Telescope, is evidence of much older explosions and jets. The second image resembles a disk of electric blue light, purple clouds, glowing white fog, and red and yellow flames, dotted with glowing orange specks. This is Cassiopeia A, a supernova remnant. Here, elements of the exploded star are being cast into space. The red and yellow flames are silicon and sulfur. The light purple within the cloud is iron, and the blast wave is blue. All were observed by Chandra's X-ray Observatory. The electric blue-purple light, which appears in ripples throughout the disk and around the outer rim, is radio data from the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array. This also shows the blast wave from the explosion. A layer from the Hubble Space Telescope adds orange to the flames and the glowing specks. In the third image, a pixelated neon pink stream extends toward our upper right like a vapor trail from an airplane. At the front of the stream, near our middle left, is a bright white dot. All around are pale blue clouds and blue and white specks of light. The white dot is a pulsar, and the pink stream is a jet captured by Chandra. Also originating from the pulsar is a faint blue shape observed in optical light. Pointing toward our lower right, the distinctive shape is somewhat hidden in the surrounding blue clouds. This is a nebula with a long thin neck and a curvy, widening body, which rightly earns it the nickname the "Guitar Nebula". The fourth image in the gallery depicts a swirling, brilliant white light sitting atop a dull splotch of pinkish-orange. Together, they're surrounded by a blue and purple haze specked with white and orange dots. This is Abell 2597, a galaxy cluster containing huge amounts of hot gas, dark matter, many galaxies, and a supermassive black hole. In this composite image, the blues and purples are X-rays observed by Chandra. The oranges are optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey. The reds are emissions from hydrogen atoms in optical light, captured by the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. In the final image, a band of mottled purple clouds dotted with bursts of orange and white is set against a black sky densely packed with colorful glowing specks. This is NGC 4490, a galaxy that has collided with a smaller, unseen neighbor. In this image, X-rays observed by Chandra are shown in purple, and optical data from Hubble appears in reds, greens, and blues. Some of the points within the purple clouds represent black holes and neutron stars within the galaxy.