chandra_227 July 28th, 2004
Credit: NASA/CXC/Northwestern U./C.Law & F.Yusef-Zadeh
This Chandra image presents the first detection of X-rays from stars in the Quintuplet star cluster. Named for its five brightest stars at infrared wavelengths, the Quintuplet is known to be home to hundreds of stars. Several of these are very massive stars that are rapidly losing gas from their surfaces in high-speed stellar winds. The bright point-like concentrations of 50 million degree Celsius gas in Chandra\'s image are thought to be caused by collisions between the high-speed winds in massive stars that have closely orbiting partners. Colliding stellar winds could also explain the diffuse X-radiation seen between the stars in the Quintuplet.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2004/quint/
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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