Tag Archive for 'X-rays'

This image of Tycho’s SNR from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals an intriguing pattern of bright clumps and fainter holes. To emphasize these features, two narrow ranges of X-ray energies were selected to isolate material (silicon, colored red) moving away from Earth, and moving towards us (also silicon, colored blue). The other colors in the image (yellow, green, blue-green, orange and purple) show a broad range of different energies and elements, and a mixture of directions of motion. Chandra’s X-ray data are shown alongside an optical image of the stars in the same field of view from the Digitized Sky Survey. Image credit: NASA / CXC / RIKEN / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / T. Sato et al / DSS.

Chandra Sheds New Light on Tycho’s Supernova Remnant

Oct 21, 2019 by News Staff

X-ray images of Tycho’s supernova remnant (Tycho’s SNR) show a pattern of bright clumps and fainter holes. By comparing new data from NASA’s Chandra...

False-color and X-ray images of the giant arc in SPT-CLJ2344-4243: the X-ray-emitting giant arc is shown relative to the center of the foreground lensing galaxy cluster in a false-color image at optical wavelengths; the inset shows Chandra X-ray (left) and Hubble optical (right) images of the giant arc at a scale 1.5 times larger; the optical colors here are given by Hubble imaging data in the F850LP (red), F775W (green) and F475W (blue) filters; two magenta circles indicate the locations of the X-ray emission from the giant arc in both inset panels; the lensing geometry of the giant arc is a pair of merging images, where the lower and upper halves of the arc are each a single image with mirror symmetry. Image credit: Bayliss et al, doi: 10.1038/s41550-019-0888-7.

Phoenix Cluster’s Gravity Magnifies X-Rays from Extremely Distant Star-Forming Galaxy

Oct 15, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have used a huge group of galaxies called the Phoenix cluster as a cosmic magnifying glass to detect X-ray emission from a very distant dwarf...

This scanning electron microscope image shows a tardigrade. Image credit: Diane Nelson, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Study: Tardigrades’ Unique Protein Forms Protective Cloud against Extreme Survival Threats

Oct 1, 2019 by News Staff

Tardigrades, also known as water bears and moss piglets, are small invertebrate animals that are found in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats...

Pfeifle et al provide the strongest evidence yet for a system of three supermassive black holes. Image credit: NASA / CXC / George Mason University / R. Pfeifle et al / SDSS / NASA / STScI.

Astronomers Find Triple Supermassive Black Hole

Sep 29, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from several space- and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered a system of three supermassive black holes within SDSS J084905.51+111447.2,...

This visible-light image of NGC 6946 comes from the Digital Sky Survey, and is overlaid with data from NASA’s NuSTAR observatory (in blue and green). ULX-4 is the green blob near the bottom of the galaxy. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NuSTAR Spots Mysterious Source of Ultraluminous X-Rays in Nearby Spiral Galaxy

Sep 5, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) have found a remarkable source of X-rays in NGC 6946, a spiral galaxy located...

This composite image of Cassiopeia A combines data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory color coded by element, ground-based images obtained in 1996 and 1999, and images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope between 2004 and 2011. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / STScI.

Chandra Tracks Evolution of Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant

Aug 28, 2019 by News Staff

A new video released by NASA’s Chandra mission shows how Cassiopeia A has evolved over more than a dozen years in X-ray light. Cassiopeia A, which is...

The central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / CXC.

Chandra Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Spectacular X-Ray Images of Astrophysical Objects

Jul 31, 2019 by News Staff

On July 23, 1999, NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center carrying the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Twenty years...

An artist’s impression of a pair of orbiting white dwarfs, ZTF J153932.16+502738.8. Image credit: Caltech / IPAC.

Astronomers Discover Record-Breaking White Dwarf Binary System

Jul 25, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the KPED (Kitt Peak Electron Multiplying CCD demonstrator) instrument at NSF’s Kitt Peak National Observatory have discovered ZTF J153932.16+502738.8,...

Vibrational motions of N-methyl morpholine. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Observe Molecular Motions in Real Time

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Brown University has used ultra-high-speed X-ray pulses to image subtle motions of a molecule of N-methyl morpholine. Vibrational...

Dai et al used Chandra to measure the spin of five quasars. Gravitational lensing of the light from each of these black holes by an intervening galaxy has created multiple images of each quasar, as shown by these Chandra images of four of the targets. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Oklahoma / Dai et al.

Chandra Uses Gravitational Lens to Capture Spinning Black Holes

Jul 5, 2019 by News Staff

By combining the capability of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with the power of a natural phenomenon called gravitational lensing, a team of astronomers...

This scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image depicts a close up of Aspergillus sp. fungal fruiting body. This reproductive structure is composed of a septate filament known as a conidiophore, which is topped by chains of conidiospores. Image credit: Janice Haney Carr & Robert Simmons, CDC.

Fungal Spores Can Withstand High Doses of Cosmic Radiation, Microbiologists Find

Jul 4, 2019 by News Staff

According to new research, spores of the fungus Aspergillus niger are able to withstand higher doses of radiation than previously thought, which can have...

Hubble’s visible-light image of the compact elliptical galaxy Markarian 1216. Image credit: NASA / STScI.

Markarian 1216: Isolated Galaxy Has Dark Matter-Rich Core

Jun 6, 2019 by News Staff

Markarian 1216 (Mrk 1216 for short) is a compact elliptical galaxy about 316 million light-years away. New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory...

This artist’s illustration depicts a coronal mass ejection, which involves a large-scale expulsion of material, and have frequently been observed on our Sun. Image credit: NNASA / CXC / INAF / Argiroffi et al / S. Wiessinger.

Chandra Detects Huge Coronal Mass Ejection from HR 9024

Jun 6, 2019 by News Staff

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs), often associated with solar flares, are the most powerful magnetic phenomena occurring on the Sun. Now, astronomers using...

A coelacanth. Image credit: Laurent Ballesta, Gombessa expeditions, Andromede Oceanology Lt.

Coelacanth Reveals Secrets of Vertebrate Skull Evolution

Apr 23, 2019 by News Staff

A new study into one of the world’s oldest types of fish, the coelacanth, illuminates for the first time the development of the brain and skull of this...

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope produced this composite image of the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. Note that the center of the Galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI.

NASA: 360-Degree Visualization Shows Galactic Center

Mar 26, 2019 by News Staff

A new immersive, 360-degree, ultra-high-definition visualization provides more details of what NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory sees in X-rays around...

The ‘Teacup’ quasar is causing an ongoing storm. The ‘handle’ is a ring of X-ray (blue) and optical (red and green) light surrounding a giant bubble, shown in the Chandra and Hubble data. This handle-shaped feature, which is located about 30,000 light-years from the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, was likely formed by one or more eruptions powered by the black hole. Image credit: X-ray -- NASA / CXC / University of Cambridge / G. Lansbury et al; optical - NASA / STScI / W. Keel et al; radio - NRAO / VLA.

‘Teacup’ Quasar Causes Galactic Storms

Mar 18, 2019 by News Staff

SDSS J143029.88+133912.0, nicknamed the ‘Teacup’ because of its shape, is a quasar located about 1.1 billion light-years away. The power source of...

The superbubbles in NGC 3079 are defined by X-ray, optical and radio emission. Image credit: X-rays - NASA / CXC / University of Michigan / Li et al; optical - NASA / STScI.

Chandra Detects Ultra-Energetic Particles from NGC 3079’s ‘Fermi Bubbles’

Mar 1, 2019 by News Staff

NGC 3079, an edge-on spiral galaxy located about 67 million light-years from Earth, contains two ‘superbubbles.’ New observations from NASA’s Chandra...

The main part of this graphic is from the Millenium simulation, which uses supercomputers to formulate how the key components of the Universe, including the WHIM, would have evolved over cosmic time. If these filaments exist, they could absorb certain types of light such as X-rays that pass through them. The inset in this graphic represents some of the X-ray data collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory from a distant, rapidly-growing supermassive black hole known as a quasar. The plot is a spectrum -- the amount of X-rays over a range of wavelengths -- from a new study of the quasar H1821+643 that is located about 3.4 billion light years from Earth. Image credit: Springel et al / NASA / CXC / CfA / Kovacs et al.

Astrophysicists May Have Found Universe’s ‘Missing Mass’

Feb 18, 2019 by News Staff

About a third of the normal matter — meaning hydrogen, helium and other elements — created shortly after the Big Bang is not seen in the present-day...

In this illustration, MAXI J1820+070 pulls material off a neighboring star and into an accretion disk; above the disk is a region of subatomic particles called the corona. Image credit: Aurore Simonnet / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NICER Observes ‘X-Ray Echoes’ of Nearby Stellar-Mass Black Hole

Feb 1, 2019 by News Staff

Astrophysicists using NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) have detected X-rays from a stellar-mass black hole called MAXI J1820+070...

This illustration helps explain how astronomers tracked the effects of dark energy to about one billion years after the Big Bang by determining the distances to quasars, rapidly growing black holes that shine extremely brightly. Two of the most distant quasars studied are shown in Chandra images in the insets. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss; X-rays – NASA / CXC / University of Florence / G. Risaliti & E. Lusso.

Dark Energy May Have Varied over Cosmic Time, New Study Suggests

Jan 31, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft have found evidence that an invisible force called dark...

«‹7 8910 11 ›»