Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2014 June 10
M51: X-Rays from the Whirlpool
Image Credit & Copyright:
X-ray:
NASA,
CXC, R. Kilgard
(Wesleyan U.
et al.;
Optical:
NASA,
STScI
Explanation:
What if we X-rayed an entire spiral galaxy?
This was done (again) recently by NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory
for the nearby interacting galaxies known as the
Whirlpool (M51).
Hundreds of glittering x-ray stars are present in the
above
Chandra image of the spiral and its neighbor.
The image is a conglomerate of
X-ray light
from Chandra and visible light from the
Hubble Space Telescope.
The number of
luminous x-ray
sources, likely neutron star and black hole
binary
systems within the confines of
M51, is unusually high
for normal spiral or elliptical galaxies and suggests this cosmic
whirlpool has experienced
intense
bursts of massive star formation.
The bright cores of both galaxies, NGC 5194 and NGC 5195
(right and left respectively), also exhibit high-energy
activity.
In
this false-color image where X-rays are depicted in purple,
diffuse X-ray emission typically results from
multi-million degree gas heated by
supernova explosions.
Follow APOD on:
Facebook,
Google Plus, or
Twitter
Tomorrow's picture: dishing it out
<
|
Archive
|
Index
|
Search
|
Calendar
|
RSS
|
Education
|
About APOD
|
Discuss
|
>
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(
MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (
UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
Specific rights apply.
NASA Web
Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of:
ASD at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered