chandra_489 August 31st, 2011
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/G.Fabbiano et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
Evidence for a pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral
galaxy has been found in data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
This main image is a composite of X-rays from Chandra (blue) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (orange and yellow) of the spiral galaxy NGC 3393. Meanwhile, the inset box shows the central region of NGC 3993 as observed just by Chandra. Two separate peaks of X-ray emission (roughly at 11 o'clock and 4 o'clock) can clearly be seen in the inset box. These two sources are black holes that are actively growing, generating X-ray emission as gas falls towards the black holes and becomes hotter.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/n3393/
Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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