Chandra Observes Titanic Merger

Chandra_120_1024

chandra_120 April 19th, 2002

Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC/J.McDowell

Chandra's observation of the peculiar galaxy Arp 220 gives new insight into what happens when two galaxies the size of the Milky Way collide. The image shows a bright central region at the waist of a glowing hour-glass-shaped cloud of hot gas heated by explosive activity related to the formation of hundreds of millions of new stars. Further out are giant lobes of hot gas which could be galactic remnants flung into intergalactic space by the early impact of the collision. In the central region two X-ray sources which may be due to central massive black holes in the pre-merger galaxies were identified. These black holes could merge over a period of a few hundred million years to produce a larger, supermassive black hole in the center of the conglomerate galaxy.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1181/

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

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

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Arp 220

Distance

Universescale3
250,000,000 light years
Chandra_120_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 15h 34m 57.4s
DEC = 23° 30’ 8.0”
Orientation
North is 8.7° CW
Field of View
1.9 x 1.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Serpens

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Pseudocolor Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 826.7 pm
Spectrum_xray1
Pseudocolor
Chandra_120_1280
×
ID
120
Subject Category
Subject Name
Arp 220
Credits
NASA/SAO/CXC/J.McDowell
Release Date
2002-04-19
Lightyears
250,000,000
Redshift
0.018
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1181/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Chandra
Instrument
ACIS
Color Assignment
Pseudocolor
Band
X-ray
Bandpass
X-ray
Central Wavelength
0.8267
Start Time
2000-06-24T15:02:54
Integration Time
57180
Dataset ID
869
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
233.7393196, 23.5022281
Reference Dimension
1500.0, 1500.0
Reference Pixel
751.0, 751.0
Scale
2.12834e-05, 2.1283418e-05
Rotation
-8.68
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
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 Center
Publisher ID
chandra
Resource ID
1181_xray.tif
Metadata Date
2012-07-30T11:35:51-04:00
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×
Universescalefull
250,000,000 light years

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