'A 400 by 900 Light-Year Mosaic the Constellation Sagittarius'
1(Galactic Center – Milky Way Galaxy)
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Welcome back My Dear Shoevians to The Other Shoe and another Chandra edition of 'Lost in Space'. I was so taken with the images I found, and shared, from the Chandra X-Ray Telescope that I have decided to revisit this platform and share even more of the incredible and memorable images that NASA has captured. Now, My Dear Shoevians, realize that the images that I am sharing, in this edition as well as the first (and any more to come) that I say come from Chandra? Well, they are composite images. They are composites made from images from; Chandra2, the Hubble3 telescope and Spitzer4 telescope. That means that each and every image, you see here today, was accomplished by (at least) three teams of scientists and visual specialists working in conjunction to produce images containing an; x-ray images, an optical image and infrared image.
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We begin, today, with the image at the top of the page. This is one of the closest images, to date, of the very center of our Milky Way Galaxy. This is a mosaic of images focusing from between 400 light-years and 900 light-years near the constellation Sagittarius. This image reveals hundreds of white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes bathed in an incandescent fog of multimillion-degree gas. It gives us, all, a new perspective on how the turbulent Galactic Center region affects the evolution of the galaxy as a whole. Looking at the very center of this image, you can see a white patch. At the very center of this white patch is a supermassive black hole. It is believed that most galaxies have a black hole (or supermassive black hole) at their center. The colors, in this image, indicate the X-Ray energy bands. They breakdown as; red=Low, green=medium and blue= high. The outflow of gases, from the Galactic Center region, which has been enriched by the frequent destruction of stars nourishes the galactic suburbs like Earth.
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Centaurus A: Black Hole Outflows From Centaurus A
5(Centaurus A: Black Hole Outflows From Centaurus A)
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For our next image, of this edition of 'Lost in Space', I have a spectacular composite image of a Black Hole (and the outflow) at Centaurus A. This is another “Supermassive Black Hole”and we can clearly see the outflow as jets and lobes of galactic material. This image is a composite of orange colors from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile and blue colors from the Chandra X-Ray telescope. The x-ray jet, in the upper left hand corner, extends about 13,000 light-years away from the black hole. As well, the APEX telescope image shows that the material is jetting from the black hole at about half the speed of light! Using one of more of these space telescopes focusing at the same point in space gives us, not only, the most incredible visual image(s), it also allows scientists to garner the most information and the best comparative studies possible.
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Crab Nebula: The Crab Nebula: A Cosmic Icon
6(Crab Nebula: The Crab Nebula: A Cosmic Icon)
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Here, on Earth, the year was 1054AD. The place, was the constellation Taurus. The event was a death of a star, a supernova. It is now known as 'The Crab Nebula'. Now 1,000 years later we are just beginning to unlock the many secrets of this resulting Neutron Star. The image, above, is a composite from three different imaging sources; the Chandra X-Ray telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope. Combing the imaging capabilities of these three space telescopes has unlocked many mysteries that this Crab Nebula has jealously guarded for the past thousand years. The Chandra image is shown in blue, the the Hubble's image(s) are shown in red and yellow and the Spitzer image is shown in purple. The combination of these three imaging sources as given mankind unique insight to the inner workings of this icon of the sky. The information from the Chandra images shows this nebula as mighty cosmic "generator," which is producing energy at the rate of 100,000 suns. The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the night sky, making this 1,000 year old neutron star a cosmic icon in the sky!
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Cepheus B: Trigger-Happy Star Formation
7(Cepheus B: Trigger-Happy Star Formation)
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Our next image, above, is of Cepheus B. Cepheus B is a mere 2,400 light-years away from Earth and is in the Milky Way Galaxy. NASA used, both, Chandra and Spitzer to analyze this gas/dust cloud to discover that this cloud is made up of molecular hydrogen and dust. Dust and hydrogen left over from the creation of our galaxy! Let us breakdown this image into its component parts. Our image is broken down as; Spitzer data is shown in red, green and blue and shows the molecular cloud (in the bottom part of the image) plus young stars in and around Cepheus B. Now, the Chandra data is shown in violet, and shows the young stars in the field. The Chandra observations allowed scientists to pick out the young stars within and near Cepheus B, they were identified by their strong x-ray emissions. On the other hand the Spitzer data showed whether the (visible) stars has so-called 'protoplanetary' disc(s)around them as such discs only exist in very young star systems. Ones where planets are still forming, so their presence is an indication of the age of a star system.
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Tycho's Supernova Remnant A New View of Tycho's Supernova Remnant
8(Tycho's Supernova Remnant A New View of Tycho's Supernova Remnant)
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Above, My Dear Shoevians, I have the most recent image of the Tycho's Supernova Remnant. Also known as SN 1572 is located in the constellation Cassiopeia. The appearance of SN 1572, in the Milky Way Galaxy, was one of just eight supernova's sighted just by the naked eye in November 1572 and is/was one of the most important observation events in the history of astronomy .The appearance of this supernova pushed mankind to develop and produce better astrometric star catalogues. As well, in the Ming dynasty China, the star became an issue between Zhang Juzheng and the young Wanli Emperor: in accordance to the cosmological tradition, the emperor was warned to consider his misbehavior, since the new star was interpreted as an evil omen. This was the very beginning of the west seeing stars as science, whereas the east still associated the stars with dogma and superstition. This image is a composite image made from observations from the Chandra X-Ray telescope and the Calar Alto observatory, in Spain. The, initial, explosion has left a blazing hot cloud of expanding debris (yellow and green) that is visible in x-rays.
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Galactic Center NASA's Great Observatories Examine the Galactic Center Region
9(Galactic Center NASA's Great Observatories Examine the Galactic Center Region)
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Our next image, My Dear Shoevians, was taken as a part of the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 . It was one of the first really coordinated efforts between three of NASA's Great Observatories; the Hubble Space Telescope10, the Spitzer Space Telescope11, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory12.Their efforts were rewarded with the collaboration to produce the single most unprecedented image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. This image became one of the most admired, awarded and memorable of the entire celebration and gave NASA, and America, greater standing in the international astronomical society. This was a huge boon for NASA, America and our American Know-How. The observations by the Chandra X-Ray telescope to see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core. Note that the center of the galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. Below is a breakdown of the contribution(s) of each platform in the production of this historic image.
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Each telescope's contribution is presented in a different color:
- Yellow represents the near-infrared observations of Hubble. They outline the energetic regions where stars are being born as well as reveal hundreds of thousands of stars.
- Red represents the infrared observations of Spitzer. The radiation and winds from stars create glowing dust clouds that exhibit complex structures from compact, spherical globules to long, stringy filaments.
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Blue and violet represents the X-ray observations of Chandra. X-rays are emitted by gas heated to millions of degrees by stellar explosions and by outflows from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's center. The bright blue blob on the left side of the full field imageis emission from a double star system containing either a neutron star or a black hole.
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NGC 6872 Galaxy Collision Switches on Black Hole
13(NGC 6872 Galaxy Collision Switches on Black Hole)
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OK... My Dear Shoevians, it is not the end of the article but one might think so with the sharing of this particular image. Above, we see the collision of two galaxies. They are NGC 6872 and IC 4970. IC 4970 is the smaller galaxy at the top of the image. Again, this image was created by using the capabilities of three telescopes. However, this time the capabilities and telescopes involved were: X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown in purple, while Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared data is red and finally the optical data comes from the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) is colored red, green and blue. Since the initial discovery of this collision, scientists have been baffled at where was the galaxy IC 4970 getting energy from? Thanks to Chandra and Spitzer data, IC 4970 is shown to contain an active supermassive black hole that got its fuel supply by stripping cold gas from NGC 6872 and is using it to feed its growing black hole. Without Spitzer and Chandra this would still be a deep mystery!
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E0102-72.3 Adding a New Dimension to an Old Explosion
14(E0102-72.3 Adding a New Dimension to an Old Explosion)
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For our next image, My Dear Shoevians, we have an explosion remnant known as supernova remnant 1E 0102.2-7219, or "E0102" for short. E0102 is the debris of a very massive star that exploded in the neighboring galaxy known as the 'Small Magellanic Cloud'.Chandra first looked at this object nearly ten years ago, just months after the telescope was launched in 1999. E0102 is located about 190,000 light years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way. It was created when a star that was much more massive than the Sun exploded, an event that would have been visible from the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth over 1000 years ago. In this latest image of E0102, the lowest-energy X-rays are colored orange, the intermediate range of X-rays is cyan, and the highest-energy X-rays Chandra detected are blue. An optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope (in red, green and blue) shows additional structure in the remnant and also reveals foreground stars in the field.
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M101 A Spectacular Image to Celebrate IYA2009
15(M101 A Spectacular Image to Celebrate IYA2009)
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Above, My Dear Shoevians, you see a dynamic image of the spiral galaxy M101 also known as M101. M101 is a face-on spiral galaxy located about 22 million light-years from our Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is very similar to our Milky Way in many respects, except it is much larger. Once again this image is a composite of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The colors correspond to the following wavelengths: The X-rays detected by Chandra are colored blue. Sources of X-rays include million-degree gas, the debris from exploded stars, and material zooming around black holes and neutron stars. The red color shows Spitzer's view in infrared light. It highlights the heat emitted by dust lanes in the galaxy where stars can form. Finally, the yellow coloring is visible light data from Hubble. Most of this light comes from stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes. This image was distributed to more than 100; planetariums, museums, nature centers, and schools across the country in conjunction with Galileo's birthday on February 15, 2009.
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RCW 86 A Super-Efficient Particle Accelerator
16(RCW 86 A Super-Efficient Particle Accelerator)
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This image is a composite from two observatories, the Chandra X-ray telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. We American's really do have more of a gift for naming our telescopes... don't you think? :) Now, this image is of RCW 86 a circular supernova remnant. It is believed that this star went supernova about 185 AD, here on Earth, and that Chinese astronomers may have observed the event here on Earth. By studying this remnant, a team of astronomers was able to understand new details about the role of supernova remnants as the Milky Way's super-efficient particle accelerators. The team shows that the shock wave visible in this area is very efficient at accelerating particles and the energy used in this process matches the number of cosmic rays observed on Earth. I am taken by just how diffuse this supernova has become in just the past 1,900 years. This is just a blink of the eye, in cosmic lifetimes. However, I was struck by the beauty of this image, and it is why I have included it as the last image for this edition of 'Lost in Space'.
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That's right this is the last image of this edition of 'Lost in Space'. All I have left for you, My Dear Shoevians, is a single incredible video! Much of this edition has been focused on supernova and exploding stars. All of them, in the end, creating the Black Holes that are imagined at the center of all galaxies, including our own Milky Way. It is for that reason that I; searched and searched and searched some more until I found what I was looking for. A video of the (believed) process of the 'Formation of a Black Hole'! Therefore, without further adieu, I give you my one and only video of this edition of 'Lost in Space' titled 'The Formation of a Black Hole'! ENJOY!
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That brings us to the very end of this edition of 'Lost in Space' My Dear Shoevians. As always, I hope that you all have enjoyed your time spent here, today. That you have found the images pleasing, the information helpful and your time spent here, well spent. If that is the case? I ask you this simple request. Please 'Like' and 'Share' this article with all your; family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances via your social media outlets. Be it Facebook or Twitter, Instragram or Tumblr. Each and every share and like helps me to reach more and more people with my works, with the knowledge and with the 'eye-candy' that is these great images of and from the stars. Here's to you having a great remainder of the week.
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Adieu!
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Thank you!
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Danny Hanning Writer, Editor, Research Staff and Publisher at The Other Shoe
© 2010 – 2015 Hanning Web Wurx and The Other Shoe
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