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New vista of Milky Way center unveiled
September 23, 2009A dramatic new vista of the center of the Milky Way galaxy from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory exposes new levels of the complexity and intrigue in the Galactic center. The mosaic of 88 Chandra pointings represents a freeze-frame of the spectacle of stellar evolution, from bright young stars to black holes, in a crowded, hostile environment dominated by a central, supermassive black hole.
Permeating the region is a diffuse haze of X-ray light from gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by winds from massive young stars - which appear to form more frequently here than elsewhere in the Galaxy - explosions of dying stars, and outflows powered by the supermassive black hole - known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Data from Chandra and other X-ray telescopes suggest that giant X-ray flares from this black hole occurred about 50 and about 300 years earlier.
The area around Sgr A* also contains several mysterious X-ray filaments. Some of these likely represent huge magnetic structures interacting with streams of very energetic electrons produced by rapidly spinning neutron stars or perhaps by a gigantic analog of a solar flare.
Scattered throughout the region are thousands of point-like X-ray sources. These are produced by normal stars feeding material onto the compact, dense remains of stars that have reached the end of their evolutionary trail - white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.
Because X-rays penetrate the gas and dust that blocks optical light coming from the center of the galaxy, Chandra is a powerful tool for studying the Galactic Center. This image combines low energy X-rays (colored red), intermediate energy X-rays (green) and high energy X-rays (blue).
The image is being released at the beginning of the "Chandra's First Decade of Discovery" symposium being held in Boston, Mass. This four-day conference will celebrate the great science Chandra has uncovered in its first ten years of operations. To help commemorate this event, several of the astronauts who were onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia - including Commander Eileen Collins - that launched Chandra on July 23, 1999, will be in attendance.
Fast Facts for Galactic Center:
Credit: NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.
Scale: Image is 120 by 48 arcmin
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies, Milky Way Galaxy
Coordinates: (J2000) RA 17h 45m 23s | Dec -29° 01' 17
Constellation: Sagittarius
Observation Date: 88 pointings between 03/29/2000 - 07/19/2007
Observation Time: 26 days 3 hours
Obs. ID: 658,944-945, 1561, 2267-2296, 2943, 2951-2954, 3392-3393, 3549, 3663, 3665, 4500, 4683-4684, 5360, 5892, 5950-5954, 6113, 6363, 6639, 6640-6646, 7034-7048, 7345-7346, 7554-7557, 8214, 8459, 8567
Color Code: Energy: Red (1-3 keV); Green (3-5 keV); Blue (5-8 keV)
Instrument: ACIS
References: M. P. Muno, et al., 2009 ApJS 181 110-128
Distance Estimate: About 26,000 light years
Release Date: September 22, 2009
Image: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/gcenter/gcenter.jpg
Chandra X-ray Observatory
Scattered throughout the region are thousands of point-like X-ray sources. These are produced by normal stars feeding material onto the compact, dense remains of stars that have reached the end of their evolutionary trail - white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.
Because X-rays penetrate the gas and dust that blocks optical light coming from the center of the galaxy, Chandra is a powerful tool for studying the Galactic Center. This image combines low energy X-rays (colored red), intermediate energy X-rays (green) and high energy X-rays (blue).
The image is being released at the beginning of the "Chandra's First Decade of Discovery" symposium being held in Boston, Mass. This four-day conference will celebrate the great science Chandra has uncovered in its first ten years of operations. To help commemorate this event, several of the astronauts who were onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia - including Commander Eileen Collins - that launched Chandra on July 23, 1999, will be in attendance.
Fast Facts for Galactic Center:
Credit: NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.
Scale: Image is 120 by 48 arcmin
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies, Milky Way Galaxy
Coordinates: (J2000) RA 17h 45m 23s | Dec -29° 01' 17
Constellation: Sagittarius
Observation Date: 88 pointings between 03/29/2000 - 07/19/2007
Observation Time: 26 days 3 hours
Obs. ID: 658,944-945, 1561, 2267-2296, 2943, 2951-2954, 3392-3393, 3549, 3663, 3665, 4500, 4683-4684, 5360, 5892, 5950-5954, 6113, 6363, 6639, 6640-6646, 7034-7048, 7345-7346, 7554-7557, 8214, 8459, 8567
Color Code: Energy: Red (1-3 keV); Green (3-5 keV); Blue (5-8 keV)
Instrument: ACIS
References: M. P. Muno, et al., 2009 ApJS 181 110-128
Distance Estimate: About 26,000 light years
Release Date: September 22, 2009
Image: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/gcenter/gcenter.jpg
Chandra X-ray Observatory
Galactic Center Current Events and Galactic Center News RSSResolving a galactic mystery
An extremely deep Chandra X-ray Observatory image of a region near the center of our Galaxy has resolved a long-standing mystery about an X-ray glow along the plane of the Galaxy.
Iowa State astrophysicist helps map the Milky Way's four spiral arms
Iowa State University's Martin Pohl is part of a research team that has developed the first complete map of the Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms.
New virtual telescope zooms in on Milky Way's super-massive black hole
An international team, led by astronomers at the MIT Haystack Observatory, has obtained the closest views ever of what is believed to be a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Closest Look Ever at the Edge of a Black Hole
Astronomers have taken the closest look ever at the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way. By combining telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California, they detected structure at a tiny angular scale of 37 micro-arcseconds - the equivalent of a baseball seen on the surface of the moon, 240,000 miles distant.
Caltech astronomers describe the bar scene at the beginning of the universe
Bars abound in spiral galaxies today, but this was not always the case. A group of 16 astronomers, led by Kartik Sheth of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, has found that bars tripled in number over the past seven billion years, indicating that spiral galaxies evolve in shape.
Milky Way's Giant Black Hole Awoke from Slumber 300 Years Ago
Using NASA, Japanese, and European X-ray satellites, a team of Japanese astronomers has discovered that our galaxy's central black hole let loose a powerful flare three centuries ago.
Mystery of Quintuplet stars in Milky Way solved
For the first time, scientists have identified the cluster of Quintuplet stars in the Milky Way's galactic center, next to the super massive black hole, as massive binary stars nearing the end of their life cycle, solving a mystery that had dogged astronomers for more than 15 years.
Hubble images some of galaxy's dimmest stars
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have imaged some of the galaxy's oldest and dimmest stars, offering a rare experimental glimpse of two mysterious star types - tiny, slow burners less than one-tenth the size of our sun and once giant stars that still glow more than 10 billion years after their deaths.
Astronomers report unprecedented double helix nebula near center of the Milky Way
Astronomers report an unprecedented elongated double helix nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, using observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Astronomers use laser to take clearest images of the center of the Milky Way
UCLA astronomers and colleagues have taken the first clear picture of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, including the area surrounding the supermassive black hole, using a new laser virtual star at the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii.
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