A spiral galaxy 12 million light years from Earth in the constellation Hydra
Description: Chandra’s image of M83 shows numerous point-like neutron star and black hole X-ray sources scattered throughout the disk of the galaxy. The bright nuclear region glows prominently due to a cloud of hot gas and a high concentration of neutron stars and black holes that were created during a burst of star formation that is estimated to have begun about 20 million years ago in the galaxy’s time frame.
Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray
Date: 2003
Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/1154/
Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Gift line: NASA/CXC/U.Leicester/U.London/R.
Accession number: m83_03
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