"X-ray Champagne Flow" Uncorked in Horseshoe Nebula

Chandra_93_1024

chandra_93 August 14th, 2003

Credit: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al.

Chandra's image shows hot gas flowing away from massive stars clustered in the center of the Horseshoe Nebula (pink) that are only about a million years old. This gas shows up as the red regions, which have temperatures ranging from about 1.5 million degrees Celsius (2.7 million degrees Fahrenheit) to about 7 million degrees Celsius (13 million degrees F). Collisions between high-speed winds of particles flowing away from the massive stars could heat the gas, or the hot gas could be produced as these winds collide with cool clouds to form bubbles of hot gas. This hot gas appears to be flowing out of the Horseshoe like champagne flows out of a bottle when the cork is removed, so it has been termed an "X-ray champagne flow."

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/m17/

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
M17

Distance

Universescale1
5,000 light years
Chandra_93_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 18h 20m 30.4s
DEC = -16° 10’ 30.1”
Orientation
North is 1.2° CW
Field of View
16.7 x 16.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 993.0 pm
Blue Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 248.3 pm
Spectrum_xray1
Red
Blue
Chandra_93_1280
×
ID
93
Subject Category
Subject Name
M17
Credits
NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al.
Release Date
2003-08-14
Lightyears
5e3
Redshift
5e3
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/m17/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Chandra, Chandra
Instrument
ACIS, ACIS
Color Assignment
Red, Blue
Band
X-ray, X-ray
Bandpass
X-ray, X-ray
Central Wavelength
0.993, 0.24825
Start Time
2002-03-02T17:05:03, 2002-03-02T17:05:03
Integration Time
39950, 39950
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
2000.0
Reference Value
275.12655364418, -16.17502122400
Reference Dimension
2400.00, 2400.00
Reference Pixel
1271.85591669194, 1082.42277747102
Scale
-0.00011601592, 0.00011601592
Rotation
-1.16680172177
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
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 Center
Publisher ID
chandra
Resource ID
m17_xray.tif
Metadata Date
2012-07-27T11:26:50-04:00
Metadata Version
1.2
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×
Universescalefull
5,000 light years

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