Chandra Sees Remarkable Eclipse of Black Hole

Chandra_352_1024

chandra_352 April 12th, 2007

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/INAF/Risaliti Optical: ESO/VLT

The bright X-ray source in the middle of Chandra's image of NGC 1365 (inset) reveals the position of the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center (shown in context of optical data). The disk of material feeding this black hole produces copious amount of X-rays, but is too small to be resolved directly with a telescope. However, a serendipitous eclipse of this black hole and disk by a dense cloud within NGC 1365, which blocked the high-energy X-rays, allowed astronomers to measure the size of the disk.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/ngc1365/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

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Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Collage
Object Name
NGC 1365

Distance Details Distance

Universescale2
60,000,000 light years
Chandra_352_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 3h 33m 36.3s
DEC = -36° 8’ 28.3”
Orientation
North is 0.3° CCW
Field of View
6.8 x 6.8 arcminutes
Constellation
Fornax

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red ESO (FORS1) Optical (R-band) 657.0 nm
Green ESO (FORS1) Optical (V-band) 554.0 nm
Blue ESO (FORS1) Optical (B-band) 429.0 nm
Purple Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 826.7 pm
Spectrum_xray1
Red
Green
Blue
Purple
Chandra_352_1280
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ID
352
Subject Category
Subject Name
NGC 1365
Credits
X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/INAF/Risaliti Optical: ESO/VLT
Release Date
2007-04-12
Lightyears
60,000,000
Redshift
60,000,000
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/ngc1365/
Type
Collage
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
ESO, ESO, ESO, Chandra
Instrument
FORS1, FORS1, FORS1, ACIS
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue, Purple
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, X-ray
Bandpass
R-band, V-band, B-band, X-ray
Central Wavelength
657, 554, 429, 0.8267
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
2000.0
Reference Value
53.40135500000, -36.14118100000
Reference Dimension
2500.00, 2485.00
Reference Pixel
1150.53075682506, 1215.25296594363
Scale
-0.00004531860, 0.00004531860
Rotation
0.31045971465
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Position
FITS Header
Notes
World Coordinate System resolved using PinpointWCS 0.9.0 revision 213+ by the Chandra X-ray Center
Creator (Curator)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu
Name
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Email
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
ngc1365.tif
Resource URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/ngc1365/ngc1365.tif
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2012-05-25T15:43:01-04:00
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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Universescalefull
60,000,000 light years

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