Chandra Release - July 22, 2024

Visual Description: Bat Shadow

In this composite image, several pink and white stars gleam through murky cloud formations. These are young stars detected by Chandra. At our lower right, an opaque cloud resembling a veined slug rises out of a muddy brown mist. Blue and grey clouds with hints of brown stretch from our lower left, to our upper right. There, near the upper righthand corner, two long black triangles appear to burst from a central gleaming star. These triangles are in fact shadows from the young star, cast on distant blue and grey clouds. The eerie shape, reminiscent of the Batman call sign projected against a cloudy Gotham sky, has earned the phenomenon the nickname The Bat Shadow.