Chandra

All the most amazing supernovas ever photographed

NASA has revealed spectacular, newly reprocessed images of four of the most amazing supernovas ever captured by a human science instrument—the Crab Nebula (top), Tycho, G292.0+1.8, and 3C58—to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Chandra observatory. I decided to go one step further and collect them all. We have detected other supernova, but I have…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Jul 22

X-Rays in Perseus May Be the Signature of Dark Matter

Most of the universe is made up out of things we can’t find. While dark matter is just that — dark — an X-ray anomaly in Perseus and 72 other galaxies may finally be a tell-tale signature of a particular form of dark matter releasing light as it decays. A strange X-ray emission line shows…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Jun 25

Black Holes and Neutron Stars in the Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy is an astrophotography classic, all swirling arms and bright stars. A new composite image of optical and X-ray wavelengths layers in a map of neutron stars and black holes within the galaxy, bright X-ray sources highlighting an ongoing galactic collision. The Whirlpool Galaxy is Messier Object 51 (M51), one of the original…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Jun 4

Behold The Awesome Sight of Four Galaxy Clusters In A Collision

Galaxies often hit each other. But what about galactic clusters? It happens — and this is what it looks like when the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe slam into one another. This region of space is located about five billion light-years from Earth. It shows no less than four clusters of galaxies in…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 3

A Cat’s Eye in the Stellar Dragon

Thousands of light years away in the constellation Draco shines the Cat’s Eye planetary nebula. Formed when a star transitions into a red giant and sheds its outer layers, the planetary nebula will shed gas until only a hot, dense core of a white dwarf is left behind. The Cat’s Eye nebula is 3,000 light…

Tech News Mika McKinnon May 5

Galaxies in Multiple Wavelengths

Blending images from multiple telescopes is scientifically fantastic for investigating structure, but also results in beautiful images. In this set of 4 images, Chandra data is layered with Spitzer’s infrared data, and the optical data from amateur astrophotographers. https://gizmodo.com/these-stunning-galaxy-portraits-relied-on-the-work-of-t-1570117094

Tech News Mika McKinnon Apr 30

These Stunning Galaxy Portraits Relied On The Work Of Talented Amateurs

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory recently released four of the most stunning images of galaxies we’ve ever seen — but these mind-blowing pictures couldn’t have come into existence without the help of amateur astronomers and photographers. Above image: Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky — making it an ideal target for amateur…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Apr 30

Amateur astronomers and NASA capture galaxy eating another galaxy

NASA has published this image showing the M51 spiral galaxy—located 30 million light years away from Earth—eating a tiny galaxy like a hamster would it a tiny burrito, which you can see on its upper left.* It was obtained using data from the Chandra X-Ray space observatory and optical data from amateur telescopes on the…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Apr 30

E0102: The Supernova Cylinder

This fluff-ball in space is E0102, the debris left over from a massive stellar explosion in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It’s located 190,000 light years away in the constellation Tucana, and it’s a favourite target of NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observer. E0102 was one of the first objects Chandra looked at, mere months after the telescope…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Apr 28

Multiple Views of Galactic Chaos

Centurus A is an active galaxy 11 million light years away in the constellation Centaurus. It’s a complex knot of hot and cold gases and dust, tracing out a collision from time long gone past. By looking at it in multiple wavelengths, astronomers can get a better understanding of its structure. This top image is…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Apr 21

A Very Strange Supernova

When supernova explode, they fling gas out into space, creating beautiful, gauzy remnant for us to drool over. Supernova remnant G352 is pretty, but weird. It’s collecting extra material, misplaced its neutron star, and looks dramatically different depending on the wavelength. The strange remnant is located about 24,000 light years from Earth, in the direction…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Apr 14

Companion to a Supernova

When half of a binary system goes supernova, usually that means a very bad day for the remaining star. But DEM L241 is tougher than that, surviving the astronomical blast to shine another day. The optical image is a mess of gas and dust (yellow and cyan) captured by Magellanic Cloud Emission Line Survey (MCELS)…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Mar 24

An interstellar spaceship is about to exit this hyperspace portal

The first time I saw this image taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory I instantly thought of dozens scenes in science fiction movies, games, and illustrations—interstellar ships about to come out of hyperspace portals or wormholes. Spectacular photo. The reason why this looks like wormhole is because a galaxy in the foreground is acting as…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Mar 5

Distant supermassive black hole spins at half the speed of light

By magnifying a region of space 6 billion light-years away, astronomers have directly measured the spin of a distant black hole — and holy crap do these things ever rotate quickly. The quasar shown above is RX J1131-1231. The striking image was captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope using a…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 5

This runaway pulsar has produced the longest jet trail ever detected

See that purple stream at the bottom right? It’s the helical jet from a runaway pulsar that’s streaking across the Milky Way at speeds reaching five million mph. But more extraordinary than that is how freakishly long this thing is. A pulsar is a type of rapidly spinning neutron star, which is the small and…

io9 George Dvorsky Feb 19

Behold the terrifyingly named Clownface Nebula

In 1797, legendary astronomer William Herschel first caught sight of this object and declared it “a very remarkable phenomenon.” Although it’s sometimes called the Clownface Nebula, it’s probably better known as the Eskimo Nebula, because it resembles (however vaguely) a person’s face inside a parka hood. Located about 3,000 light-years away, it only measures about…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Aug 4

Amazing Aftermath of the Supernova that Lit Up the Sky 1000 Years Ago

Astronomers working at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have captured the most detailed image yet taken of a Type Ia supernova. And this particular supernova is one that people observed all over the world, when it first happened. What you’re looking at here is the remnant of a white dwarf — or possibly two dwarfs —…

io9 George Dvorsky Apr 18

Did NASA Discover an Awesome Spaceship or Is This Pulsar Just Happy to See Us?

NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory has captured this incredible image of an object 1,000 light years away from Earth. It looks like an awesome Klingon spaceship accelerating to Warp 10. Or a majestic 12-mile-long Cylon Basestar that flies through the cosmos rotating eleven times every second. It’s name is Vela and it is a pulsar that…

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz Feb 14

NASA releases four jaw-dropping images of planetary nebulae

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory just wrapped up its first systematic survey of planetary nebulae within our solar neighborhood, and the results are absolutely beautiful. In an article published in the August 2012 issue of The Astronomical Journal, researchers led by Joel Kastner and Rodolfo Montez Jr used Chandra to observe 21 planetary nebulae, all of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Oct 11

The 20 Million MPH Cosmic Hurricane Tearing Through Our Universe

If you thought space was a peaceful vacuum, think again: scientists have discovered the fastest winds ever observed on a stellar-mass black hole, and they reach an incredible 20 million mph. The winds, detected using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, are ten times faster than any detected at similar black holes in the past, reports Space.…

Space & Spaceflight Jamie Condliffe Feb 22

All the most amazing supernovas ever photographed

X-Rays in Perseus May Be the Signature of Dark Matter

Black Holes and Neutron Stars in the Whirlpool Galaxy

Behold The Awesome Sight of Four Galaxy Clusters In A Collision

A Cat’s Eye in the Stellar Dragon

Galaxies in Multiple Wavelengths

These Stunning Galaxy Portraits Relied On The Work Of Talented Amateurs

Amateur astronomers and NASA capture galaxy eating another galaxy

E0102: The Supernova Cylinder

Multiple Views of Galactic Chaos

A Very Strange Supernova

Companion to a Supernova

An interstellar spaceship is about to exit this hyperspace portal

Distant supermassive black hole spins at half the speed of light

This runaway pulsar has produced the longest jet trail ever detected

Behold the terrifyingly named Clownface Nebula

Amazing Aftermath of the Supernova that Lit Up the Sky 1000 Years Ago

Did NASA Discover an Awesome Spaceship or Is This Pulsar Just Happy to See Us?

NASA releases four jaw-dropping images of planetary nebulae

The 20 Million MPH Cosmic Hurricane Tearing Through Our Universe

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