GOODS Chandra Deep Fields

CXC Logo
Chandra X-ray
Observatory Center 		Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden St. Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
http://chandra.harvard.edu
graphic
GOODS Chandra Deep Field North: An X-ray image made by observing a region of the sky three-fifths the size of the full moon for 23 days.
(Credits: NASA/CXC/PSU/D.M.Alexander, F.E.Bauer, W.N.Brandt et al.)

Caption: Chandra's Deep Field North image is the most sensitive or "deepest" X-ray exposure ever made. The faintest sources produced only one X-ray photon every 4 days. More than 500 X-ray sources are present in this high-energy core sample of the early universe. A few are stars in our galaxy, but most of the sources are supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies. If the number of supermassive black holes seen in this patch of the sky is typical, the total number detectable over the whole sky at this level of sensitivity would be 300 million.

Scale: Image is 28 arcmin on a side.
Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image

CXC operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
graphic