Chandra Turns Up the Heat in the Milky Way Center
chandra_221 June 13th, 2004
Credit: NASA/CXC/UCLA/MIT/M.Muno et al.
This X-ray image was produced by combining a dozen Chandra observations made of the central region of the Milky Way. The colors represent low (red), medium (green) and high (blue) energy X-rays. Chandra's unique resolving power has allowed astronomers to identify thousands of point-like X-ray sources due to neutron stars, black holes, white dwarfs, foreground stars, and background galaxies. What remains is a diffuse X-ray glow extending from the upper left to the lower right, along the direction of the disk of the Galaxy. The Chandra data indicate that the diffuse glow is a mixture of 10-million-degree Celsius gas and 100-million-degree gas. Shock waves from supernova explosions are the most likely explanation for heating the 10-million degree gas, but how the 100-million-degree gas is heated is a mystery.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2004/sgra/
Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
-
View Options
Download Options
-
Full Size Image
(2400 x 2400)
JPG (469 KB) Source File
- Additional Sizes (JPG)
- 320 x 320 (37 KB)
- 1280 x 1280 (179 KB)
- 500 x 500 (57.1 KB)
- 1600 x 1600 (248 KB)
- 1024 x 1024 (132 KB)
Image Details
Distance
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- 221
- Subject Category
- B.3.1.10 B.5.4.6
- Subject Name
- Sagittarius A*
- Credits
- NASA/CXC/UCLA/MIT/M.Muno et al.
- Release Date
- 2004-06-13
- Lightyears
- 26,000
- Redshift
- 26,000
- Reference Url
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2004/sgra/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Chandra, Chandra, Chandra
- Instrument
- ACIS, ACIS, ACIS
- Color Assignment
- Red, Green, Blue
- Band
- X-ray, X-ray, X-ray
- Bandpass
- Central Wavelength
- 0.992, 0.413, 0.207
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 266.4322364, -29.0009351
- Reference Dimension
- 2400.0, 2400.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1201.0, 1201.0
- Scale
- 0.000111906, 0.00011190567
- Rotation
- -15.44
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
- Creator (Curator)
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
- URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu
- Name
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
- Telephone
- 617.496.7941
- Address
- 60 Garden St.
- City
- Cambridge
- State/Province
- MA
- Postal Code
- 02138
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
- Publisher
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- Publisher ID
- chandra
- Resource ID
- sgra_xray.tif
- Resource URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2004/sgra/sgra_xray.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2012-03-22T11:54:10-04:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
