Chandra Release - November 24, 2025

Visual Description: Fall Seasonal Offerings

This release highlights a collection of four composite images, presented in a two-by-two grid. Each image features data gathered by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and additional NASA and other telescopes.

At our upper left is NGC 6334, a massive nebula and star-forming region. In this image, scores of glowing young stars, depicted as tiny specs of distant light, illuminate an otherwise dark scene. The specs of red, green, yellow, purple, and white, are clustered near the center of the image, but extend to the edges of the frame in faint streaks. Partially masking the specs of color are tendrils of grey clouds; strong winds of dust and gas blowing from the still-forming stars.

The image at our upper right features a supernova remnant called G272.2-3.2. Here, a white dwarf star has pulled material from a companion star, triggering a thermonuclear explosion. What remains is a giant ball of superheated gas, set against a densely-packed field of distant stars and galaxies. In this image, the ball of gas is a mottled, translucent orange sphere with patches of hot pink at the outer edges. 

The image at the grid's lower right depicts a pair of colliding spiral galaxies. Here, both spirals are shown face on, with the smaller of the two galaxies, IC 2163, at the upper left of the larger galaxy, NGC 2207, which dominates the center and lower right of the image. Both galaxies have long, spiraling, silver blue arms, dotted with specs of blue and red. Toward our upper left, the curving arms overlap, and bend toward their neighbors' core.

Finally, at our lower left, is R Aquarii, a symbiotic binary star. Here, a white dwarf star pulls material from a much larger red giant companion, sending looping jets of matter into space. In this composite image, which includes an optical image from astrophotographer Bob Fera, the resulting structure resembles a cozy sweater with a red body, and blue wooly arms opened wide.