Seeking Missing Matter in Hot Halos

Could "missing" matter be found in the extended halos of spiral galaxies? Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);  Acknowledgment: W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O’Connell (University of Virginia)

Many galaxies seem to have far less visible matter than expected. In a new article, astronomers have taken the search for missing matter to the outskirts of spiral galaxies.

Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, is one of the many recognizable galaxies investigated in this work. The galactic halos studied in this article likely extend hundreds of thousands of light-years into space — far larger than the galaxies’ starry disks. Messier 51’s disk is 76,000 light-years in diameter. Credit:NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Misterious Matter

Just 15% of all the matter in the universe is thought to be visible matter — the kind we interact with on a daily basis — with dark matter making up the remaining 85%. Though dark matter is certainly the more elusive of the two, visible matter isn’t without its mysteries — after adding up the masses of the visible components of galaxies like stars and gas clouds, most galaxies appear to have less visible matter than expected based on observations of galaxies early in the universe. Milky Way-like galaxies seem to lack about 70% of their mass while low-mass galaxies can be missing all but a few percent.

Where might this missing matter be hiding? One possibility is that much of the mass of galaxies lies in extended halos that stretch hundreds of thousands of light-years beyond the bright, starry regions that make up the main body of a galaxy. This gas is difficult to detect because of its low density and interference from intervening gas within our own galaxy. How, then, can we weigh this halo gas?

A map of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background from WMAP. This map shows temperature deviations of up to 200 microkelvin. Credit: NASA

A Sunyaev–Zeldovich Stack

A team led by Joel Bregman (University of Michigan) searched for missing matter in galactic halos by looking for evidence of the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect — the process through which low-energy photons from the cosmic microwave background are kicked up to higher energies through interactions with extremely hot gas. The magnitude of this effect is proportional to the mass and temperature of the gas, making it a useful probe of hot, diffuse halos that might otherwise be impossible to spot.

Bregman and collaborators used this method to investigate the halos around 12 spiral galaxies located 10–33 million light-years away — close enough to determine the spatial extent of the hot halo gas. Most of the halos were too faint to be detected individually, so the team stacked the observations from 11 of the 12 galaxies (one galaxy showed significant differences and was analyzed separately) to extract a signal and determine the average properties of the galaxies in the sample.

The integrated Sunyaev–Zeldovich signal from the stack of 11 galaxies as a function of radius (left) and the signal to noise ratio (right).  Credit: Bregman et al. 2022

Luminous Matter at Large

Bregman and coauthors found that out to a radius of 815,000 light-years (250 kiloparsecs), each galaxy contains 98 billion solar masses of gas. Each galaxy is expected to contain about 310 billion solar masses of visible matter, so this constitutes about 30% of the galaxies’ total mass. The galaxies’ stars, star-forming gas, and cooler halo gas make up a further 30%, meaning that the remaining 40% of the visible matter in these galaxies likely resides at even larger distances.

In order to search for gas even farther out, the team hopes to stack observations from more galaxies and develop new algorithms to reduce uncertainties. Proposed cosmic microwave background detectors like the Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins may also aid the search for missing matter, helping us understand where present-day galaxies hide their mass.

Citation

“Hot Extended Galaxy Halos around Local L* Galaxies from Sunyaev–Zeldovich Measurements,” Joel N. Bregman et al 2022 ApJ 928 14. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac51de

 

By Kerry Hensley

Source:American Astronomical Society - ASS Nova

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Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys Celebrates 20 Years of Discovery

Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) forever changed our view of the universe. Two decades into its epic mission, ACS continues to deliver ground-breaking science and stunning images. ACS has taken over 125,000 pictures and spawned numerous discoveries. Here is a portfolio of some of the ACS's most striking images. In this six-panel collage, the photos are (left to right): the Spire in the Eagle Nebula, V838 Monocerotis, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), Saturn, and the Orion Nebula (M42).Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, STScI 

Release Images / Release Videos

For 20 years, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has unveiled intriguing new secrets of the universe, looking deep into space with unprecedented clarity from onboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Astronauts installed ACS during Hubble Servicing Mission 3B, also known as STS-109, on March 7, 2002. With its wide field of view, sharp image quality, and high sensitivity, ACS has delivered many of Hubble's most impressive images of deep space.

Former astronaut Mike Massimino, one of the two spacewalking astronauts who installed ACS, remembers, "We knew ACS would add so much discovery potential to the telescope, but I don't think anybody really understood everything it could do. It was going to unlock the secrets of the universe."

ACS has lived up to that promise. Following its installation, ACS became Hubble's most frequently used instrument. Among its many accomplishments, the camera has helped map the distribution of dark matter, detected the most distant objects in the universe, searched for massive planets and studied the evolution of clusters of galaxies.

"When ACS was installed on Hubble, the telescope was already famous for taking deep images of the distant universe, like the Hubble Deep Field," explained Tom Brown, Head of the Hubble Space Telescope Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. "However, because ACS was so powerful relative to the earlier cameras, it became routine to see very distant galaxies in the background of Hubble images, even when we were looking at nearby objects."

One example of this is a spectacular disrupted galaxy called the Tadpole (UGC 10214). Astronomers photographed the Tadpole shortly after ACS's installation to demonstrate the camera's capabilities. With its long tail of stars, the Tadpole looked like a runaway pinwheel firework. But what was really stunning was the backdrop — a rich tapestry of 6,000 galaxies captured by ACS.

"The Advanced Camera for Surveys represented a new paradigm for Hubble Space Telescope instruments when it was designed. It has lived up to expectations, proving to be one of Hubble's most scientifically productive instruments," said Mark Clampin, Director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Prior to joining Goddard, Clampin was the ACS Group Lead at STScI, where he worked on three Hubble Servicing Missions. 

In January 2007, an electronics malfunction rendered the two most-used science channels on ACS inoperable. Thanks to engineering ingenuity, spacewalking astronauts on Hubble Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125) repaired the Wide Field Channel, the workhorse responsible for 70 percent of the pre-2007 ACS science. The High Resolution Channel, however, could not be repaired. Still, two decades into its mission, ACS continues to deliver ground-breaking science.

"The Advanced Camera for Surveys has opened our eyes to a deep and active universe for two decades," said Jennifer Wiseman, NASA's Hubble Senior Project Scientist. "We are anticipating still more discoveries with this camera, in conjunction with Hubble's other science instruments, for many years to come."

To date, ACS has taken over 125,000 pictures. These observations have spawned numerous discoveries, some of which are highlighted below.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 

In undoubtedly its most important observations, ACS revealed a series of the deepest portraits of the universe ever achieved by humankind. In the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), unveiled in 2004, ACS teamed up with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to capture light from galaxies that existed about 13 billion years ago, some 400 to 800 million years after the Big Bang. This million-second-long exposure revealed new insights into some of the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called "dark ages," the time shortly after the Big Bang when the first stars reheated the cold, dark universe. 

In later versions, ACS teamed with other Hubble instruments to refine the depth and reach of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. These portraits pushed humanity's view of the universe back to within 435 million years of the Big Bang, capturing images of the earliest objects in the cosmos. They forever changed our view of the universe and spawned innumerable collaborations.

 The Frontier Fields

Following in the spirit of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the Frontier Fields extended Hubble's reach even farther with the help of giant cosmic lenses in space. The immense gravity of massive clusters of galaxies warps the light from even-more-distant galaxies beyond, distorting and magnifying the light until those galaxies — too faint to be seen by Hubble directly — become visible. Frontier Fields combined the power of Hubble with the power of these "natural telescopes" to reveal galaxies 10 to 100 times fainter than could be seen by Hubble alone. Astronomers simultaneously used ACS for visible-light imaging and Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 for its infrared vision.

Over the course of three years, Hubble devoted 840 orbits around the Earth — that's more than 1,330 hours — to six clusters of galaxies and six "parallel fields" — regions near the galaxy clusters. While these parallel fields could not be used for gravitational lensing, Hubble performed "deep field" observations on them — long looks far into the depths of space. Through the power of gravitational lensing, Hubble peered more deeply into space than ever before, while the parallel field observations expanded our knowledge of the early universe that began with the Hubble Deep Fields and Hubble Ultra Deep Field.

Helping the New Horizons Mission by Photographing Pluto

ACS captured the most detailed images ever taken of the dwarf planet Pluto years before the New Horizons flyby. The images reveal an icy, mottled, dark molasses-colored world undergoing seasonal surface and brightness changes. The ACS images were invaluable to planning the details of the New Horizons flyby in 2015 by showing which hemisphere looked more interesting for the spacecraft to take close-up snapshots during its brief encounter.

The Mysterious Fomalhaut b  

In 2008, ACS made the first visible-light snapshot of what was initially thought to be a planet, dubbed Fomalhaut b, orbiting the nearby, bright southern star Fomalhaut. The diminutive-looking object appeared as a dot next to a vast ring of icy debris that ACS observed to be encircling Fomalhaut. In following years, researchers tracked the object along its trajectory. But over time the dot expanded and became fainter as it moved out of sight. Instead of a planet, it is now thought to be an expanding cloud of very fine dust particles from two icy bodies that smashed into each other, according to some researchers. The nature of the object is still being debated, and follow-up studies may unravel this mystery.

The Light Echo of V838 Monocerotis  

The ACS captured an unusual phenomenon in space called a light echo, where light from an erupting star reflects or "echoes" off the dust and then travels to Earth. The echo came from the variable star V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon). In early 2002, V838 Mon increased in brightness temporarily to become 600,000 times brighter than our Sun. The reason for the eruption is still unclear.

Light from V838 Mon propagated outward through a cloud of dust surrounding the star. Because of the extra distance the scattered light traveled, it reached the Earth years after the light from the stellar outburst itself. ACS monitored the light from the stellar outburst for several years as it continued to reflect off shells of dust surrounding the star. The phenomenon is an analog of a sound produced when an Alpine yodeler's voice echoes off the surrounding mountainsides. The spectacular light echo allowed astronomers to view continuously changing cross-sections of dust surrounding the star. This is a dramatic illustration of the power of ACS and Hubble to monitor phenomena over time. The longevity and consistency of ACS is critical for this type of research. 

Collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies

By measuring the tiny, sideways motion of a group of stars in our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, ACS allowed astronomers to calculate that Andromeda and our Milky Way will collide head-on in about 4 billion years from now. Andromeda, also known as M31, is now 2.5 million light-years away, but it is falling toward the Milky Way under the mutual pull of gravity between the two galaxies. The prediction is that they will merge into a single elliptical galaxy similar to the kind commonly seen throughout the universe.

Galaxy Cluster Abell 1689's Gravitational Lens

In 2002, ACS delivered an unprecedented and dramatic new view of the cosmos when it demonstrated the power of gravitational lensing. The ACS peered straight through the center of one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, called Abell 1689. The gravity of the cluster's trillion stars – plus dark matter – acts as a 2-million-light-year-wide "lens" in space. This gravitational lens bends and magnifies the light of galaxies located far behind it, distorting their shapes and creating multiple images of individual galaxies.  

ACS's sharpness, combined with this behemoth natural lens, revealed remote galaxies previously beyond even Hubble's reach. The results shed light on galaxy evolution and dark matter in space.

Mature and "Toddler" Galaxies Far Back in Time

Using ACS to look back in time nearly 9 billion years, an international team of astronomers found mature galaxies in a young universe. The galaxies are members of a cluster of galaxies that existed when the universe was only 5 billion years old. This compelling evidence that galaxies must have started forming just after the Big Bang was bolstered by observations made by the same team of astronomers when they peered even farther back in time. The team found galaxies a mere 1.5 billion years after the birth of the cosmos. The early galaxies reside in a still-developing cluster, the most distant proto-cluster ever found. 

The ACS was built especially for studies of such distant objects. These findings further support observations and theories that galaxies formed relatively early in the history of the cosmos. The existence of such massive clusters in the early universe agrees with a cosmological model wherein clusters form from the merger of many sub-clusters in a universe dominated by cold dark matter. The precise nature of cold dark matter, however, is still not known.

Clues about the Accelerating Universe and Dark Energy

Astronomers using ACS found supernovas that exploded so long ago they provide new clues about the accelerating universe and its mysterious "dark energy." ACS can pick out the faint glow of these very distant supernovas. The ACS can then dissect their light to measure their distances, study how they fade, and confirm that they are a special type of exploding star, called a Type Ia supernova, that are reliable distance indicators. Type Ia supernovas glow at a predictable peak brightness, which makes them reliable objects for calibrating vast intergalactic distances.

In 1998, Hubble astronomers found such a far-off supernova that provided the unexpected revelation that galaxies appeared to be moving away from each other at an ever-increasing speed. They've attributed this accelerating expansion to a mysterious factor known as dark energy that is believed to permeate the universe. Since its installation, ACS has been hunting Type Ia supernovas in the early universe to provide supporting evidence.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

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Credits: Release: NASA, ESA 

Media Contact: 

Ann Jenkins
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

Contact Us: Direct inquiries to the News Team.

Related Links and Documents:  

• NASA's Hubble Portal
• ESA/Hubble's Release

Source: HubbleSite/News

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Galaxies, Assemble!: MaNGA team releases largest-ever collection of 3-D maps of nearby galaxies

An image of the Whirlpool galaxy (M51); an iconic nearby galaxy, made using a Mosaic of images of one thousand galaxies, ten percent of the entire in the MaNGA sample. The top panel of the inset shows an SDSS image of galaxy MaNGA ID 1-37995; the bottom panel shows the MaNGA datacube for that galaxy, displaying just 9 of the over 30 different maps available in the MaNGA data. Explore an interactive mosaic of this image! Image credit: Karen Masters and the SDSS collaboration

MaNGA measures spectra at multiple points in the same galaxy, using a newly created fiber bundle technology. The left-hand side shows the Sloan Foundation Telescope and a close-up of the tip of the fiber bundle. The bottom right illustrates how each fiber observes a different section of each galaxy. The image (from the Hubble Space Telescope) shows one of the first galaxies that that MaNGA measured.  The top right shows data gathered by two fibers observing two different part of the galaxy, showing how the spectrum of the central regions differs dramatically from outer regions. Click to download a larger version from Google Drive. Image credit: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc., David Law, SDSS Collaboration. Hubble Space Telescope image credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

The Hertzsprung-Russelll diagram for the nearly 12,000 stars observed by MaStar. Each little circle in the diagram represents a unique star. The vertical axis shows how luminous the stars are relative to the Sun. The horizontal axis shows how hot it is. The size of the circle indicates how strong gravity is on their surface. The bigger the circle, the smaller is the gravity on their surface, with the red giant stars in the upper right corner. The position of our Sun is indicated by the red dot in the middle. The color of the circles indicate the amount of heavy elements as compared to the Sun. Blue and purple colors mean the stars have less heavy elements, and yellow means the stars have more heavy elements than the Sun. Click to download a larger version from Google Drive. Image credit:Renbin Yan and the SDSS collaboration

Just over a month ago, scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) released the complete dataset of 10,000 galaxies observed by the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) project, making MaNGA the largest galaxy survey of its kind.

MaNGA is a special kind of galaxy survey, which makes use of an innovative fiber-bundling technology to make detailed spectral maps of thousands of nearby galaxies. Spectra are graphs that show the amount of light given off by a galaxy at different wavelengths, much like a rainbow shows the amount of sunlight in various colors. Most previous galaxy surveys have either taken detailed images in a handful or just one colour, or measured just a single spectrum for an entire galaxy, but MaNGA works differently.

MaNGA made use of an innovative technique for bundling sets of fiber-optic cables into tightly-packed hexagonal arrays. With these bundles the team measured spectra at tens to hundreds of separate points in each galaxy, resulting in a “datacube” containing full spectroscopic information at each point. Making use of the famous SDSS plug plates, which allow multiple such bundles to be precisely aligned over target galaxies, MaNGA was able to observe seventeen galaxies at once. Similar surveys could only observe one galaxy at a time, making MaNGA almost twenty times faster than previous efforts — and six years of observing in this mode created the largest ever sample size of this kind.

Kevin Bundy, from the University of California at Santa Cruz and MaNGA’s PI, explains the motivation behind the MaNGA survey. “Observing such a large sample with MaNGA allows us to see how the detailed internal properties of galaxies vary in systematic ways with other factors, like galaxy mass, or where galaxies live in the Universe. These patterns are the key to understanding the physical processes that shape galaxy evolution.”

Researchers study each data cube to reveal its galaxy’s detailed chemical composition, find the ages, chemical makeup and motions of the stars inside it and map ionized interstellar gas. MaNGA has created over 30 different maps for each galaxy. These maps can be used for lots of different applications, for example, to estimate how many baby stars are being formed at every position in the galaxy, or to find the influence of the central supermassive black hole. MaNGA dramatically increases the number of galaxies with this detailed information, and a sister project, the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), helped it along.

Galaxies are made of stars, so understanding them in detail requires a detailed library of spectra of stars. Alongside the complete release of MaNGA, SDSS scientists are pleased to announce the completion of MaStar, which made use of otherwise unused time on the MaNGA instrument to observe over 24,000 stars, enabling the scientists to more accurately extract information from the MaNGA data. Renbin Yan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the leader of the MaStar project explained “MaStar is a special kind of library that includes spectra for as many types of stars as possible. Using these data, we can figure out how many of each type of star add up to make each of the many spectra from a MaNGA galaxy, and reconstruct the most accurate view ever of when and where stars formed in that galaxy’s cosmic history.”

For example, MaNGA data have been used to make movies showing how the location where baby stars form moves around through spiral arms and other features in galaxies. Identifying which spectra came from which internal structure turns out to be tricky for computers, but with the help of citizen scientists, the MaNGA team have been able to do this, providing in this release maps showing where the structures are. And the kinematics of galaxies can reveal previously unknown galaxy interactions.

All of this MaNGA data has been made publicly available, for anyone to use, and the SDSS team have also created a specially designed tool dubbed “Marvin”, to help with data access. Marvin allows anyone to have a quick look at the data of each galaxy in an easy-to-use web interface, and is also available as a powerful set of python modules which allow anyone familiar with coding to access and visualize this complex data. Brian Cherinka, one of the lead developers of Marvin from Space Telescope Science Institute explains, “Marvin was designed specifically to access the complex MaNGA data and help researchers to avoid some of the common pitfalls in data visualization and access.”

Using MaNGA data and an early version of Marvin, scientists have already been discovering many new things about galaxies, with over 500 papers already published using the data. For example, MaNGA team members discovered a new class of galaxy, dubbed a red geyser, in which outflows from the supermassive black hole, revealed in MaNGA maps of ionized gas, are preventing new stars from forming. And to scientists’ surprise this happens even in the smallest galaxies.

Making MaNGA data both publicly available, and accessible will fuel science analyses for years to come, and puts the full power of MaNGA data into the hands of anyone who wants to use it. “It’s important to us that the data is not just available, but also accessible, so that anyone with an interest in galaxies can use MaNGA data for their research, education, or just for fun, can explore the cubes, spectra and maps to learn more these galaxies,” says Anne-Marie Weijmans of the University of St Andrews who led the part of the SDSS team in charge of data releases, “You don’t need to be a galaxy expert to work with MaNGA data: we have many tutorials on our website to get you started.”

The instrumentation innovations developed for MaNGA will reverberate into the future. The next generation of SDSS (SDSS-V) is expanding on the novel fiber-packing methods developed for MaNGA to construct even larger fiber bundles for its Local Volume Mapper program. This survey will also study gas and newly-formed stars, but in an environment much closer to home — our own Milky Way and its nearby smaller neighbors. By combining these data with what MaNGA has learned from thousands of more distant galaxies, astronomers will gain a much deeper understanding of how gas and stars coexist and interact throughout a galaxy’s lifetime.

Source: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)/Press Release

Contacts:

• Kevin Bundy, University of California Santa Cruz, 831-459-3539, kbundy@ucsc.edu
• Renbin YAN, Chinese University of Hong Kong, +852 3943 6362, rbyan@cuhk.edu.hk
• Brian Cherinka, Space Telescope Science Institute, 410-338-672, bcherinka@stsci.edu
• Karen Masters, SDSS-IV Spokesperson, Haverford College, 610-795-6066, klmasters@haverford.edu
• Twitter: @KarenLMasters / @SDSSurveys
• Jordan Raddick, SDSS-IV Press Officer, Johns Hopkins University, 443-570-7105, raddick@jhu.edu

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Press Releases:

All prior SDSS press releases can be found in the press release archives of the various phases of the SDSS:

• SDSS-IV Press Release archive
• SDSS-III Press Release archive
• SDSS-I/-II Press Release archive

About the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah.

The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org.

SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) / University of Tokyo, the Korean Participation Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatório Nacional / MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University.

SDSS / Press Releases / Galaxies, Assemble!: MaNGA team releases largest-ever collection of 3-D maps of nearby galaxies

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Chandra Sees Evidence for Possible Planet in Another Galaxy

M51/Whirpool Galaxy

Credit X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. DiStefano, et al.; 

Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Grendler; 

Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

JPEG (299.8 kb) - Large JPEG (12.4 MB) - Tiff (101 MB) - More Images

Tour: Chandra Sees Evidence for Possible Planet in Another Galaxy - More Animations

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Astronomers have found evidence for a possible planet candidate in the M51 ("Whirlpool") galaxy, potentially representing what would be the first planet seen to transit a star outside of the Milky Way. As reported in our latest press release, researchers used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to detect the dimming of X-rays from an "X-ray binary", a system where a Sun-like star is in orbit around a neutron star or black hole. The authors interpret this dimming as being a planet passing in front of the neutron star or black hole.

The left panel of this graphic shows M51 in X-rays from Chandra (purple and blue) and optical light from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). A box marks the location of the possible planet candidate, an X-ray binary known as M51-ULS-1. An artist's illustration in the right panel depicts the X-ray binary and possible planet. Material from the companion star (white and blue in illustration) is pulled onto the neutron star or black hole, forming a disk around the dense object (illustrated as red and orange). The material near the dense object becomes superheated, causing it to glow in X-ray light (white). The planet is shown beginning to pass in front of this source of X-rays.

Looking for the dimming of a star's light as something passes in front of it is called the transit technique. For years, scientists have discovered exoplanets using transits with optical light telescopes, which detect the range of light humans can see with their eyes and more. This includes both ground-based telescopes and space-based ones like NASA's Kepler mission. These optical light transit detections require very high levels of sensitivity because the planet is much smaller than the star it passes in front of, and, therefore, only a tiny fraction of the light is blocked.

M51-ULS-1 Transit Only

Animation Credit: NASA/CXC/A.Jubett

The scenario of a transit in an X-ray binary is different. Because a potential planet is close in size to the X-ray source around the neutron star or black hole, a transiting planet passing along Earth's line of sight could temporarily block most or all of the X-rays. This makes it possible to spot transits at greater distances — including beyond the Milky Way — than current optical light studies using transits. A separate graphic shows how X-rays from M51-ULS-1 temporarily decrease to zero during the Chandra observations.

While this is a tantalizing study, the case of an exoplanet in M51 is not ironclad. One challenge is that the planet candidate's large orbit in M51-ULS-1 means it would not cross in front of its binary partner again for about 70 years, thwarting any attempts for a confirming observation for decades. There is also the possibility that the dimming of X-rays is due to a passing cloud of gas near the M51-ULS-1, though the researchers think the data strongly favor the planet explanation.

Illustration Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

The paper describing these results appears in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy and is available online. The authors are Rosanne DiStefano (CfA), Julia Berndtsson (Princeton), Ryan Urquhart (Michigan State University), Roberto Soria (University of the Chinese Science Academy), Vinay Kashap (CfA), Theron Carmichael (CfA), and Nia Imara (now at the University of California at Santa Cruz). NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Quick Look: Chandra Sees Evidence for Possible Planet in Another Galaxy

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Fast Facts for M51/Whirlpool Galaxy:

Scale: Image is about 6 arcmin (49,000 light years) across.
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Observation Date: 11 pointings between March 2000 and October 2012
Observation Time: 232 hours 10 minutes (9 days 16 hours 10 min)
Obs. ID: 353, 354, 1622, 3932, 13812-13816, 15496, 15553
Instrument: ACIS
Also Known As: NGC 5194, NGC 5195
References: DiStefano, R., et al., 2021, Nature Astronomy (Published); PDF Document
Color Code: X-ray: purple and blue; Optical: red, green, and blue
Distance Estimate: About 28 million light years

Source: NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory

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Magnetic Chaos Hidden Within the Whirlpool Galaxy

Magnetic field streamlines detected by SOFIA are shown over an image of the Whirlpool galaxy, M51, from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. For the first time, SOFIA’s infrared view shows that the magnetic fields in the outer arms do not follow the galaxy's spiral shape and are instead distorted. The intense star formation activity in these regions, shown in red, may be causing the chaos, along with the forces from the yellow neighboring galaxy, NGC 5195, tugging on one of the spiral arms. Credits: NASA, the SOFIA science team, A. Borlaff; NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Hi-res image

Not all appears as it would seem in the Whirlpool galaxy. One of the best-studied spiral galaxies and a delight to amateur astronomers, Messier 51, as it’s officially named, is influenced by powerful, invisible forces.  

Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, the galaxy’s arms are strikingly visible as they reach out along the central spine structure, displaying swirling clouds of gas and dust that are massive star-making factories. But new observations by NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, presented at this week’s 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, shows  a more complicated picture.  

Radio telescopes previously detected neatly-drawn magnetic fields throughout the length of the galaxy’s massive arms. But under SOFIA’s infrared gaze for the first time those lines give way to a chaotic scene in the outer spiral arms. Using a far-infrared camera and imaging polarimeter instrument called the High-Resolution Airborne Wideband Camera, or HAWC+, researchers found that the magnetic fields in the outskirts of the galaxy no longer follow the spiral structure and are instead distorted. 

What’s causing all this magnetic pandemonium? The intense star formation in these areas creates chaos that can only be seen with infrared flight. A nearby, yellowish galaxy called NGC 5195 tugging at the outermost tip of one of the arms adds to the turmoil, possibly strengthening the magnetic fields. The research builds on SOFIA’s previous findings that show magnetic fields are important in shaping spiral galaxies and helps unravel the complex role magnetic fields play in the evolution of galaxies. 

Media Contact: 

Elizabeth Landau 
NASA Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-0845 
elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov 

Alison Hawkes 
NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, Calif. 
650-604-4789 
alison.hawkes@nasa.gov 

Editor: Kassandra Bell

 

Source: NASA/Galaxies

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The Cold Case of Carbon Monoxide

Hubble's sharpest view of the Orion Nebula

Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto ( Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

Fifty years ago, astronomers discovered carbon monoxide in space. It allowed us to see dark regions of the universe, and helped us understand it more clearly.

Half a century ago, using a National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) 36-foot telescope in Tuscon, Arizona, three astronomers, R. W. Wilson, K. B. Jefferts, and A. A. Penzias made the first discovery of carbon monoxide (CO) in space. It was a small result, just the observation of a bright radio signal from within the Orion Nebula. The paper announcing the discovery is two pages long. But sometimes a small discovery can change the way we see the universe.

Astronomers can only see atoms and molecules in space by studying their light. The light they absorb and the light they emit. It can be difficult to observe this light because most of the gas in the universe is cold and dark. The first atom to be seen in space was hydrogen, which emits a faint radio light with a wavelength of 21 centimeters. This light could be seen because hydrogen is by far the most abundant element in the universe. Carbon monoxide is much rarer, but the light it emits is bright and distinct. And CO gas tends to be found in cold, dense, interstellar clouds. Its discovery let astronomers study these clouds in a new way.

A visualization of cold carbon monoxide gas in the Sculptor Galaxy.

One of the first surprises was that cold gas clouds are very common in the Milky Way. Before the radio observation of CO, the clouds could only be seen in visible light, and only where they blocked or reflected the light of nearby bright stars. Most were invisible to optical telescopes. With radio telescopes, astronomers could see clouds of gas and dust throughout our galaxy. As radio astronomers discovered more types of molecules in space, they began to understand the complex chemistry that occurs in these interstellar clouds.

Cold carbon monoxide gas emits a clear and distinct radio signal, so it can be used as a good measure of the density and motion of interstellar clouds. This is particularly useful in the study of planet-forming regions within these clouds. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has observed the light from CO gas to identify clumps within the planet-forming disks around young stars. The clumps indicate where new planets might be forming.

ALMA image of the debris disk surrounding a star in the Scorpius-Centaurus Association known as HIP 73145. The green region maps the carbon monoxide gas that suffuses the debris disk. The red is the millimeter-wavelength light emitted by the dust surrounding the central star. The star HIP 73145 is estimated to be approximately twice the mass of the Sun. The disk in this system extends well past what would be the orbit of Neptune in our solar system, drawn in for scale. The location of the central star is also highlighted for reference.

One of the challenges in optical astronomy is that dusty regions can absorb and scatter much of the optical light emitted by stars. It’s similar to the way fog might hide your view of distant city lights. This is particularly true in the region near the center of our galaxy, and it makes it difficult for astronomers to study the far side of the Milky Way. But the radio light emitted by carbon monoxide penetrates through this region very well. Because of this, radio astronomers have been able to identify gas clouds throughout our galaxy, even within distant spiral arms. This allows astronomers to study the structure of the Milky Way, and how it differs from other spiral galaxies.

The spiral galaxy M51: Left, as seen with the Hubble Space Telescope; Right, radio image showing location of Carbon Monoxide gas.

The CO molecule was detected because NRAO’s 36-foot telescope was capable of observing short radio wavelengths of only a few millimeters. Millimeter-wavelength radio astronomy continues be on the cutting edge of radio technology. Through it, dark regions of the universe have become bright beacons of understanding.

Reference:

Wilson, R. W., K. B. Jefferts, and A. A. Penzias. “Carbon monoxide in the Orion nebula.” The Astrophysical Journal 161 (1970): L43.

Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)/News

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ULX in M51: Beaming with the Light of Millions of Suns

ULX in M51 

Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/Caltech/M. Brightman et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI

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In the 1980s, scientists started discovering a new class of extremely bright sources of X-rays in galaxies. These sources were a surprise, as they were clearly located away from the supermassive black holes found in the center of galaxies. At first, researchers thought that many of these ultraluminous X-ray sources, or ULXs, were black holes containing masses between about a hundred and a hundred thousand times that of the sun. Later work has shown some of them may be stellar-mass black holes, containing up to a few tens of times the mass of the sun.

In 2014, observations with NASA's NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) and Chandra X-ray Observatory showed that a few ULXs, which glow with X-ray light equal in luminosity to the total output at all wavelengths of millions of suns, are even less massive objects called neutron stars. These are the burnt-out cores of massive stars that exploded. Neutron stars typically contain only about 1.5 times the mass of the sun. Three such ULXs were identified as neutron stars in the last few years. Scientists discovered regular variations, or "pulsations," in the X-ray emission from ULXs, behavior that is exhibited by neutron stars but not black holes.

Now, researchers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have identified a fourth ULX as being a neutron star, and found new clues about how these objects can shine so brightly. The newly characterized ULX is located in the Whirlpool galaxy, also known as M51. This composite image of the Whirlpool contains X-rays from Chandra (purple) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). The ULX is marked with a circle.

Neutron stars are extremely dense objects — a teaspoon would weigh more than a billion tons, as much as a mountain. The intense gravity of the neutron stars pulls surrounding material away from companion stars, and as this material falls toward the neutron star, it heats up and glows with X-rays. As more and more matter falls onto the neutron star, there comes a time when the pressure from the resulting X-ray light becomes so intense that it pushes the matter away. Astronomers call this point — when the objects typically cannot accumulate matter any faster and give off any more X-rays — the Eddington limit. The new result shows this ULX is surpassing the Eddington limit for a neutron star.

The scientists analyzed archival X-ray data taken by Chandra and discovered an unusual dip in the ULX's X-ray spectrum, which is the intensity of X-rays measured at different wavelengths. After ruling out other possibilities, they concluded that the dip was likely from a process called cyclotron resonance scattering, which occurs when charged particles — either positively charged protons or negatively charged electrons — circle around in a magnetic field. The size of the dip in the X-ray spectrum, called a cyclotron line, implies magnetic field strengths that are at least 10,000 times greater than those associated with matter spiraling into a stellar-mass black hole, but are within the range observed for neutron stars. This provides strong evidence that this ULX is a neutron star rather than a black hole, and is the first such identification that did not involve the detection of X-ray pulsations.

An accurate determination of the magnetic field strength depends on whether the cause of the cyclotron line, either protons or electrons, is known. If the line is from protons, then the magnetic fields around the neutron star are extremely strong, comparable to the strongest magnetic fields produced by neutron stars, and may in fact be helping to break the Eddington limit. Such strong magnetic fields could reduce the pressure from a ULX's X-rays — the pressure that normally pushes away matter — allowing the neutron star to consume more matter than expected.

If the cyclotron line is from circling electrons, by contrast, then the magnetic field strength around the neutron star would be about 10,000 times less strong, and thus not powerful enough for the flow onto this neutron star to break the Eddington limit.

The researchers currently don't have a spectrum of the new ULX with enough detail to determine the cyclotron line's origin. To further address this mystery, the researchers are planning to acquire more X-ray data on the ULX in M51 and look for cyclotron lines in other ULXs.

A paper describing this research, led by Murray Brightman of the California Institute of Technology, appears in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy. The other authors include F. Fürst of the European Space Astronomy Centre; M.J. Middleton of University of Southampton, United Kingdom; D.J. Walton and A.C. Fabian of University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; D. Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; M. Heida of Caltech; D. Barret of France's Centre national de la recherche scientifique and University of Toulouse; and M. Bachetti of Italy's Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

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Fast Facts for ULX in M51:

Scale: Image is 6 x 6 arcmin across. (About 52,000 x 52,000 light years.)
Category: Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries, Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 13h 29m 55.7s | Dec +47° 13´ 53"
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Observation Date: 11 pointings between Mar 2000 and Oct 2012
Observation Time: 232 hours 10 min (9 days 16 hours 10 min )
Obs. ID: 353, 354, 1622, 3932, 13812-13816, 15496, 15553
Instrument: ACIS
References: "Magnetic field strength of a neutron-star-powered ultraluminous X-ray source", M. Brightman et al., 2018, Nature Astronomy, in press.
Color Code: X-ray (Purple); Optical (Red, Green, Blue)
Distance Estimate: About 30 million light years

Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Spitzer, Hubble Find "Twins" of Superstar Eta Carinae in Other Galaxies

Eta Carinae's great eruption in the 1840s created the billowing Homunculus Nebula, imaged here by Hubble, and transformed the binary into a unique object in our galaxy. Astronomers cannot yet explain what caused this eruption. The discovery of likely Eta Carinae twins in other galaxies will help scientists better understand this brief phase in the life of a massive star. Credits: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

The nearby spiral galaxy M83 is currently the only one known to host two potential Eta Carinae twins. This composite of images from the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 instrument shows a galaxy ablaze with newly formed stars. A high rate of star formation increases the chances of finding massive stars that have recently undergone an Eta Carinae-like outburst. Bottom: Insets zoom into Hubble data to show the locations of M83's Eta twins. Credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and R. Khan (GSFC and ORAU). Hi-res image

In a follow-on survey in 2015, the team found two candidate Eta twins in the galaxy M83, located 15 million light-years away, and one each in NGC 6946, M101 and M51, located between 18 and 26 million light-years away. These five objects mimic the optical and infrared properties of Eta Carinae, indicating that each very likely contains a high mass star buried in five to 10 solar masses of gas and dust. Further study will let astronomers more precisely determine their physical properties. The findings were published in the Dec. 20 edition of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Researchers found likely Eta twins in four galaxies by comparing the infrared and optical brightness of each candidate source. Infrared images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope revealed the presence of warm dust surrounding the stars. Comparing this information with the brightness of each source at optical and near-infrared wavelengths as measured by instruments on Hubble, the team was able to identify candidate Eta Carinae-like objects. Top: 3.6-micron images of candidate Eta twins from Spitzer's IRAC instrument. Bottom: 800-nanometer images of the same sources from various Hubble instruments. Credits: NASA, ESA, and R. Khan (GSFC and ORAU)

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in late 2018, carries an instrument ideally suited for further study of these stars. The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) has 10 times the angular resolution of instruments aboard Spitzer and is most sensitive at the wavelengths where Eta twins shine brightest. 

"Combined with Webb's larger primary mirror, MIRI will enable astronomers to better study these rare stellar laboratories and to find additional sources in this fascinating phase of stellar evolution," said Sonneborn, NASA's project scientist for Webb telescope operations. It will take Webb observations to confirm the Eta twins as true relatives of Eta Carinae.

The Spitzer Space Telescope is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena conducts science operations. 

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.

For more information about Spitzer, visit:  http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer
For more information about Hubble, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

Francis Reddy
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

 Source: NASA/Solar System and Beyond

NGC 5195: NASA's Chandra Finds Supermassive Black Hole Burping Nearby

 NGC 5194
Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Texas/E.Schlegel et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
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 X-ray close-up

  Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Texas/E.Schlegel et al

Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to discover one of the nearest supermassive black holes to Earth that is currently undergoing powerful outbursts, as described in our latest press release. This galactic burping was found in the Messier 51 galaxy, which is located about 26 million light years from Earth and, contains a large spiral galaxy NGC 5194 (also known by its nickname of the "Whirlpool"), merging with a smaller companion galaxy NGC 5195.

This main panel of this graphic shows M51 in visible light data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). The box at the top of the image outlines the field of view by Chandra in the latest study, which focuses on the smaller component of M51, NGC 5195. 

The inset to the right shows the details of the Chandra data (blue) of this region. Researchers found a pair of arcs in X-ray emission close to the center of the galaxy, which they interpret as two outbursts from the galaxy's supermassive black hole (mouse over annotated image for additional information). The authors estimate that it took about one to three million years for the inner arc to reach its current position, and three to six million years for the outer arc.

Just outside the outer X-ray arc is a slender region of hydrogen emission detected in an optical image. This suggests that the X-ray emitting gas has "snow-plowed" or swept-up the hydrogen gas from the center of the galaxy. This is a clear case where a supermassive black hole is affecting its host galaxy, in a phenomenon that astronomers called "feedback." 

This arc of hydrogen gas contains what appears to be two or three small "HII regions." An HII (pronounced "H-two") region is created when the radiation from hot, young stars strips away the electrons from neutral hydrogen atoms (HI) to form clouds of ionized hydrogen (HII). This suggests that the outer arc has plowed up enough material to trigger the formation of new stars.

The outbursts of the supermassive black hole in NGC 5195 may have been triggered by the interaction of this galaxy with the large spiral galaxy in M51, causing gas to be disrupted and then funneled down towards the black hole.

These results were presented at the 227th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Kissimmee, Florida. They are also in a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal and the authors are Eric Schlegel (University of Texas at San Antonio), Christine Jones (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Marie Marachek (CfA), and Laura Vega (Fisk University and Vanderbilt University Bridge Program).

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations. Swift is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Fast Facts for NGC 5195:

Scale: Main image is about 6 x 10 arcmin (About 45,000 x 76,000 light years) Pullout image is 3 arcmin across (about 23,000 light years)
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 13h 29m 59.9s | Dec +47° 15' 58.00"
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Observation Date: 11 pointings between Mar 2000 and Oct 2012
Observation Time: 232 hours 10 min. (9 days 16 hours 10 min)
Obs. ID: 353,354,1622,3932,13812-13816,15496,15553
Instrument: ACIS
References: Schlegel, E. et al, AAS 227, 5-8 Jan 2016
Color Code: X-ray (Blue); Optical (Red, Green, Blue)
Distance Estimate: About 26 million light years

Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

IYL 2015: Chandra Celebrates The International Year of Light

M51, SNR E0519-69.0, MSH 11-62, Cygnus A, RCW 86

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The year of 2015 has been declared the International Year of Light (IYL) by the United Nations. Organizations, institutions, and individuals involved in the science and applications of light will be joining together for this yearlong celebration to help spread the word about the wonders of light.

In many ways, astronomy uses the science of light. By building telescopes that can detect light in its many forms, from radio waves on one end of the "electromagnetic spectrum" to gamma rays on the other, scientists can get a better understanding of the processes at work in the Universe.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory explores the Universe in X-rays, a high-energy form of light. By studying X-ray data and comparing them with observations in other types of light, scientists can develop a better understanding of objects likes stars and galaxies that generate temperatures of millions of degrees and produce X-rays.

To recognize the start of IYL, the Chandra X-ray Center is releasing a set of images that combine data from telescopes tuned to different wavelengths of light. From a distant galaxy to the relatively nearby debris field of an exploded star, these images demonstrate the myriad ways that information about the Universe is communicated to us through light.

The images, beginning at the upper left and moving clockwise, are:

Messier 51 (M51):

This galaxy, nicknamed the "Whirlpool," is a spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way, located about 30 million light years from Earth. This composite image combines data collected at X-ray wavelengths by Chandra (purple), ultraviolet by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX, blue); visible light by Hubble (green), and infrared by Spitzer (red).

SNR E0519-69.0:

When a massive star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, it left behind an expanding shell of debris called SNR 0519-69.0. Here, multimillion degree gas is seen in X-rays from Chandra (blue). The outer edge of the explosion (red) and stars in the field of view are seen in visible light from Hubble.

MSH 11-62:

When X-rays, shown in blue, from Chandra and XMM-Newton are joined in this image with radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (pink) and visible light data from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS, yellow), a new view of the region emerges. This object, known as MSH 11-62, contains an inner nebula of charged particles that could be an outflow from the dense spinning core left behind when a massive star exploded.

Cygnus A:

This supernova remnant is the remains of an exploded star that may have been witnessed by Chinese astronomers almost 2,000 years ago. Modern telescopes have the advantage of observing this object in light that is completely invisible to the unaided human eye. This image combines X-rays from Chandra (pink and blue) along with visible emission from hydrogen atoms in the rim of the remnant, observed with the 0.9-m Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (yellow).

RCW 86:

This galaxy, at a distance of some 700 million light years, contains a giant bubble filled with hot, X-ray emitting gas detected by Chandra (blue). Radio data from the NSF's Very Large Array (red) reveal "hot spots" about 300,000 light years out from the center of the galaxy where powerful jets emanating from the galaxy's supermassive black hole end. Visible light data (yellow) from both Hubble and the DSS complete this view.

In addition to these newly released images, the Chandra X-ray Center has created a new online repository of images called "Light: Beyond the Bulb" for IYL. This project places astronomical objects in context with light in other fields of science and research.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

For more information on "Light: Beyond the Bulb," visit the website at http://lightexhibit.org

For more information on the International Year of Light, go to http://www.light2015.org/Home.html

Fast Facts for Whirlpool Galaxy:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Scale: Image: is 6 x 10 arcmin across. (About 52,000 x 87,000 light years)
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 13h 29m 52.3s | Dec +47° 11' 54
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Observation Dates: 11 pointings between Mar 2000 and Oct 2012
Observation Time: 232 hours 10 min (9 days 16 hours 10 min)
Obs. IDs: 353, 354, 1622, 3932, 13812-13816, 15496, 15553
Instrument: ACIS
Also Known As: NGC 5194, NGC 5195
Color Code: X-ray (Purple); Ultraviolet (Blue); Optical (Green); Infrared (Red)
Distance Estimate: About 30 million light years


Fast Facts for SNR E0519-69.0:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Hughes; Optical: NASA/STScI
Scale: Image is 1.5 arcmin across. (about 70 light years)
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 05h 19m 34.90s | Dec -69° 02' 07.30"
Constellation: Dorado
Observation Dates: 4 pointings between Jun 2000 and Feb 2010
Observation Time: 25 hours 16 min (1 day 1 hour 16 min)
Obs. IDs: 118, 11241, 12062, 12063
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray (Blue); Optical (Red, Green, Blue)
Distance Estimate: About 160,000 light years


Fast Facts for MSH 11-62:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane et al; Optical: DSS; Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA
Scale: Image is 55 arcmin across. (256 light years)
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 11h 11m 52.00s | Dec -60° 39' 12.00"
Constellation: Carina
Observation Dates: 1 pointing in Apr 2002 and 8 between Oct 2013 and Jan 2014
Observation Time: 131 hours 17 min (5 days 11 hours 17 min)
Obs. IDs: 2782, 14822-14824, 16496, 16497, 16512, 16541, 16566
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray (Blue); Optical (Yellow); Radio (Pink)
Distance Estimate: About 16,000 light years


Fast Facts for Cygnus A:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/AUI/VLA
Scale: Image is 2.7 arcmin across. (about 550,000 light years)
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 19h 59m 28.30s | Dec +40° 44' 02.00"
Constellation: Cygnus
Observation Dates: 11 pointings between Mar 2000 and Sep 2005
Observation Time: 67 hours 35 min (2 days 19 hours 35min)
Obs. IDs: 359, 360, 1707, 5830, 5831, 6225, 6226, 6228, 6229, 6250, 6252
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: Blue; Optical: Yellow; Radio: Red
Distance Estimate: About 700 million light years


Fast Facts for RCW 86:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/D.Castro et al, Optical: NOAO/AURA/NSF/CTIOScale: Image is 19.5 arcmin across. (about 46.5 light years)
Category Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 14h 45m 02.30s | Dec -62º 20' 32.00"
Constellation: Circinus
Observation Dates: 3 pointings in Feb, 2013
Observation Time: 28 hours 57 min (1 day 4 hours 57 min )
Obs. IDs: 14890, 15608, 15609
Instrument: ACIS
Also Known As: G315.4-2.1
Color Code: X-ray (Blue and Pink); Optical (Yellow)
Distance Estimate: About 8,200 light years 

Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory