Images by Date
Images by Category
Solar System
Stars
Exoplanets
White Dwarfs
Supernovas
Neutron Stars
Black Holes
Milky Way Galaxy
Normal Galaxies
Quasars
Galaxy Clusters
Cosmology/Deep Field
Miscellaneous
Images by Interest
Space Scoop for Kids
4K JPG
Multiwavelength
Sky Map
Constellations
Photo Blog
Top Rated Images
Image Handouts
Desktops
Fits Files
Image Tutorials
Photo Album Tutorial
False Color
Cosmic Distance
Look-Back Time
Scale & Distance
Angular Measurement
Images & Processing
AVM/Metadata
Image Use Policy
Web Shortcuts
Chandra Blog
RSS Feed
Chronicle
Email Newsletter
News & Noteworthy
Image Use Policy
Questions & Answers
Glossary of Terms
Download Guide
Get Adobe Reader
More Information
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
X-ray Astronomy Field Guide
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Questions and Answers
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Chandra Images
Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Milky Way Galaxy
X-ray Astronomy Field Guide: Milky Way Galaxy
Questions and Answers: Milky Way Galaxy
Chandra Images: Milky Way Galaxy
Related Podcasts
Tour: NASA's Chandra Catches Spider Pulsars Destroying Nearby Stars
Download Image

More Information
Handout
Handout: html | pdf

More Images
Chandra X-ray Image of Galactic Center, Key Sources Labeled
(Credit: NASA/UMass/D.Wang et al.)

Animation & Video


Related Images
DB01-42, DB00-58 & DB00-6:
Stars of Wonder, Stars of Infrared and X-ray Light


DB00-6
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern U./C.Law & F.Yusef-Zadeh; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF

This montage shows three clusters of bright, young stars in X-ray (blue) and infrared (green) light that lie in the direction of the center of the Galaxy. Like many stars in the disk of the Galaxy, they are difficult, if not impossible, to see with an optical telescope because of interstellar dust that blocks the visible light.

Infrared and X-ray data provide evidence for a large amount of dust and gas along the line of sight to the cluster, DB01-42. Invisible to optical telescopes, it is located near the Galactic Center, about 26,000 light years from Earth. Most of the stars in the image produce infrared radiation from their surfaces which have temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius. The X-radiation from the two bright X-ray sources near the center of the cluster requires gas with temperatures of millions of degrees.

Such extremely hot gas may be due to the collision of stellar winds from two closely orbiting stars. The two bright X-ray sources in the image are likely close binary stars with high-speed stellar winds. The diffuse X-ray glow could be caused by the combined heating of gas in the cluster by winds from many stars.

The light from the stars in the two clusters, DB00-58 and DB00-6 show much less X-ray and infrared absorption. This lower absorption, which still blocks much of the visible light, indicates that these star clusters are not in the Galactic Center, but are foreground objects. The way in which the X-rays are produced in these clusters is likely to be similar to DB01-42.

Fast Facts for DB00-6:
Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern U./C.Law & F.Yusef-Zadeh; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
Scale  3.1 arcmin across.
Category  Normal Stars & Star Clusters, Milky Way Galaxy
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 17h 47m 9.40s | Dec -28° 46' 26"
Constellation  Sagittarius
Observation Dates  July 17, 2001
Observation Time  3 hours
Obs. IDs  2288
Color Code  Energy (X-ray: Blue; Infrared: Green)
Instrument  ACIS
References C. Law & F. Yusef-Zadeh, Astrophys. J. 611:858-870, 2004 August 20
Distance Estimate  Significantly less than 25,000 light years
Release Date  December 23, 2004
Fast Facts for DB01-42:
Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern U./C.Law & F.Yusef-Zadeh; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
Scale  4.2 arcmin across.
Category  Normal Stars & Star Clusters, Milky Way Galaxy
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 17h 44m 52.50s | Dec -29° 40' 48"
Constellation  Sagittarius
Observation Dates  July 20, 2001
Observation Time  6 hours
Obs. IDs  2270,2278
Color Code  Energy (X-ray: Blue; Infrared: Green)
Instrument  ACIS
References C. Law & F. Yusef-Zadeh, Astrophys. J. 611:858-870, 2004 August 20
Distance Estimate  25,000 light years
Release Date  December 23, 2004
Fast Facts for DB00-58:
Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern U./C.Law & F.Yusef-Zadeh; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
Scale  2.8 arcmin across.
Category  Normal Stars & Star Clusters, Milky Way Galaxy
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 17h 44m 59.90s | Dec -28° 51' 37"
Constellation  Sagittarius
Observation Dates  July 18, 2001
Observation Time  6 hours
Obs. IDs  2284,2287
Color Code  Energy (X-ray: Blue; Infrared: Green)
Instrument  ACIS
References C. Law & F. Yusef-Zadeh, Astrophys. J. 611:858-870, 2004 August 20
Distance Estimate  Significantly less than 25,000 light years
Release Date  December 23, 2004