Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/UMass/D. Wang et al. Optical: NASA/STScI/U. Alabama/W. Keel Radio: NSF/NRAO/F. Owen Optical [OII]: NSF/NOAO/KPNO/M.Ledlow

The composite image at left spans about one million light years. It was made by combining the four images at right. These images offer a dramatic look at C153, a galaxy being stripped of its gas as it races at 4.5 million miles per hour through a vast cloud of 20-million-degree Celsius gas located in a cluster of galaxies. Long streamers of gas with temperatures ranging from 10 thousand (visible [oxygen or OII]) to 10 million degrees (X-ray) Celsius have been driven from the galaxy by the pressure of the hot cluster gas. Hubble's visible-light image reveals evidence of a large-scale disturbance of the galaxy. Radio observations depict jets of high-energy particles produced by a supermassive black hole.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2004/c153/

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

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