Tag Archive for 'X-rays'

This IXPE image maps the intensity of X-rays coming from Cassiopeia A; colors ranging from cool purple and blue to red and hot white correspond with the increasing brightness of the X-rays; the image was created using X-ray data collected by IXPE between January 11 and 18, 2022. Image credit: NASA / ASI / IXPE.

IXPE Space Observatory Collects Its First Imaging Data

Feb 15, 2022 by News Staff

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), an international collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), has captured an image of...

An artist’s impression of the G29-38 white dwarf, accreting planetary material from a circumstellar debris disk; when the planetary material hits the white dwarf surface, a plasma is formed and cools via detectable X-ray emission. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

White Dwarf Spotted Eating Planetary Debris

Feb 10, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected five X-ray events from G29-38, which is among the 100 closest white dwarfs. Their results...

This X-ray image of the Milky Way’s center merges all Swift observations from 2006 through 2013; Sagittarius A* is at the center; low-energy (300 to 1,500 electron volts) X-rays appear red; green are medium-energy (1,500 to 3,000 eV); blue are high-energy (3,000 to 10,000 eV). Image credit: NASA / Swift / N. Degenaar.

Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Flares Irregularly and Unpredictably, Astronomers Find

Jan 13, 2022 by News Staff

Sagittarius A*, the 4.3-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, is a strong source of radio, X-rays and gamma rays. It also...

This graphic shows X-rays that NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected from the dwarf galaxy Mrk 462. This X-ray emission (inset) is important because it reveals the presence of a growing supermassive black hole within this relatively small galaxy. The mass contained in this black hole -- about 200,000 times the mass of the Sun -- provides information to astronomers about how some of the earliest black holes in the Universe may have formed and grown billions of years ago. The background panel is an optical image from the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. There are several galaxies that are part of the HCG068 galaxy group on the left-hand side of the image. The galaxy that is emitting copious amounts of X-rays, however, is the much smaller galaxy located to the lower right of the image (marked by the arrow). Image credit: NASA / CXC / Dartmouth College / J. Parker & R. Hickox / Pan-STARRS.

Chandra Detects Mini-Supermassive Black Hole in Star-Forming Dwarf Galaxy

Jan 11, 2022 by News Staff

A supermassive black hole with 200,000 solar masses is located in the middle of the dwarf galaxy Markarian 462 (Mrk 462), according to new research led...

Four enormous cavities have been found at the center of the RBS 797 galaxy cluster using Chandra. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Bologna / F. Ubertosi / STScl / M. Calzadilla / NSF / NRAO / ALMA.

Chandra Spots Four Cavities in Center of Galaxy Cluster

Dec 29, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have found a quartet of pronounced X-ray cavities in RBS 797, a cluster of galaxies located about...

This artist’s illustration depicts what Chu et al. think is happening in the binary system KPD 0005+5106. The data suggest the white dwarf (blue sphere) is blasting a companion object (brown and red object on right), which is either a low-mass star or planet, with waves of heat and radiation. The white dwarf is also pulling material from the companion into a disk around itself, which the artist shows in orange, before it slams into its north and south poles. This process is contributing to the destruction of the companion through powerful gravitational forces. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss / ASIAA / Chu et al.

Hard X-Ray Emission from White Dwarfs Reveals Their Hidden Companions

Nov 23, 2021 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite, astronomers have investigated unusual X-ray activity in three white dwarfs:...

This Hubble image shows DEM L249, a remnant of Type Ia supernova located some 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Mensa. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Y. Chou, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Observes Distant Remnant of Type Ia Supernova

Nov 9, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shot this image of the supernova remnant DEM L249. This Hubble image shows DEM L249, a remnant of Type Ia supernova...

Tin monosulfide nanosheets possess high photon absorption coefficients, allowing them to be used in making ultrathin soft X-ray detectors with high sensitivity and a rapid response time. Image credit: Shabbir et al., doi: 10.1002/adfm.202105038.

World’s Thinnest X-ray Detector Created

Nov 9, 2021 by News Staff

The structural characteristics of biological specimens, such as wet proteins and living cells, can be conveniently probed in their host aqueous media using...

An artist’s impression of the binary system MAXI J1820+070. Image credit: John Paice.

Warped Accretion Disk Spotted around Stellar-Mass Black Hole

Oct 28, 2021 by News Staff

Variations in the brightness of light seen from around a stellar-mass black hole in the binary system MAXI J1820+070 were caused by a huge warp in its...

This composite image shows SNR G344.7-0.1 through the eyes of different telescopes: X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been combined with infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (yellow and green) as well as radio data from the NSF’s Very Large Array and CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array (red). Image credit: NASA / CXC / Tokyo University of Science / Fukushima et al. / JPL / Spitzer / CSIRO / ATNF / ATCA.

Chandra Observes Distant Remnant of Type Ia Supernova

Oct 14, 2021 by News Staff

The Type Ia supernova remnant (SNR) G344.7-0.1 resides about 19,600 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. This composite image shows SNR G344.7-0.1...

Phacops geesops, a trilobite species that lived during the Devonian period; the animal’s eyes consist of 200 single lenses each, spanning six small facets, which again form one eye each. Image credit: Brigitte Schoenemann.

Devonian Phacopid Trilobites Had Unique Hyper-Compound Eyes

Oct 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Trilobites are extinct arthropods that dominated the faunas of the Paleozoic Era. Since their appearance 523 million years ago, they were equipped with...

Photons emitted near rotating black holes encode quantum information that can be measured by actual quantum information technology. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Measure Mass and Spin of Intermediate-Mass Black Hole

Sep 17, 2021 by News Staff

The intermediate-mass black hole in question was caught in the act of swallowing a star, called a tidal disruption event. Dubbed 3XMM J215022.4-055108,...

This artist’s impression shows how ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, may have looked. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Quasars are Standardizable Cosmic Candles, Astronomers Say

Sep 14, 2021 by News Staff

Using spectral data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Chandra Source Catalog 2.0, and the Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey, astronomers have found...

Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA. Image credit: Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Compact Object Collision with Companion Star Triggers Supernova Event

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using data collected by the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), astronomers have found evidence that a compact object — a black hole or neutron...

MG B2016+112: the X-ray light from one of the objects on the left (purple) has been warped by the gravity of the intervening galaxy to produce two beams and X-ray sources (A and B) detected in the Chandra image, which is represented by the dashed square on the right; the X-ray light from the fainter object (blue) produces an X-ray source (C) that has been amplified by the galaxy to be as much as 300 times brighter than it would have been without the lensing; the Chandra image is shown in the inset; these two X-ray-emitting objects are likely a pair of growing supermassive black holes or a growing supermassive black hole and a jet. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss / SAO / Schwartz et al.

Chandra Observes Gravitationally-Lensed Supermassive Black Hole System

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

By combining gravitational lensing with the capabilities of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have detected two X-ray-emitting objects —...

This composite image features a spectacular set of eight separate concentric rings around a black hole in the V404 Cygni binary system, captured using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The image also contains optical data from the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii that show the stars in the field of view. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Wisconsin-Madison / Heinz et al. / Pan-STARRS.

Astronomers Spot Giant X-Ray Rings around Stellar-Mass Black Hole

Aug 9, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have detected a set of eight X-ray rings around a low-mass black...

Wilkins et al. observed bright flares of X-ray emissions, produced as gas falls into a supermassive black hole in I Zwicky 1; the flares echoed off of the gas falling into the black hole, and as the flares were subsiding, short flashes of X-rays were seen -- corresponding to the reflection of the flares from the far side of the disk, bent around the black hole by its strong gravitational field. Image credit: Dan Wilkins.

Astronomers Detect Light Echoes Coming from Behind Supermassive Black Hole

Jul 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s NuSTAR space telescopes, astronomers have observed X-ray flares emitted from around the supermassive black hole in...

Jupiter’s X-ray aurorae. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Zhonghua Yao / William Dunn.

Planetary Scientists Solve Mystery of Jupiter’s X-Ray Auroral Flares

Jul 12, 2021 by News Staff

The rapidly rotating, strong magnetic field of Jupiter provides a natural lab that is key to understanding the dynamics of high-energy plasmas. Spectacular...

PAH molecules overlaid on the Taurus Molecular Cloud, a large blue-white cloud made of gas and dust with large and small stars of varying luminosities interspersed throughout. Aromatic molecule structures shown in order from left to right: 1-cyanonaphthalene, 1-cyano-cyclopentadiene, HC11N, 2-cyanonaphthalene, vinylcyanoacetylene, 2-cyano-cyclopentadiene, benzonitrile, E-cyanovinylacetylene, HC4NC, propargylcyanide. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Meteoritic Polymers of Glycine Shed Light on Pre-Solar Space Chemistry

Jun 30, 2021 by News Staff

Asteroid material in chondritic Vigarano class alteration type 3 (CV3) meteorites provide a good record of complex chemistry present when or before our...

This image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the supernova remnant MSH 15-52. Image credit: NASA / SAO / NCSU / Borkowski et al.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Watches Fast Blast Wave from Exploded Star

Jun 25, 2021 by News Staff

A stellar structure known as the ‘Hand of God’ is a nebula of energy and particles blown by a pulsar left behind after a star exploded in our Milky...

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