It’s truly the summer of Space Day.
The anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing and the anniversary of Space.com opening up the internet National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of Chandra The Chandra X-ray Observatory, the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, turns 25 today. To celebrate the observatory’s achievement, NASA has released 25 beautiful, never-before-seen photos of iconic celestial objects, including the Crab Nebula, Pillars of Creation, and Cassiopeia A. The photos take us on a breathtaking journey through the cosmos through Chandra’s eyes.
Chandra Space.com Launches
25 new Chandra images. (Image courtesy of NASA/CXC/SAO)
“For a quarter century, Chandra has made one amazing discovery after another,” said Pat Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts. statement
Related: The Chandra X-ray spacecraft is about to shut down, posing a major threat to astronomy.
Chandra is the third flagship mission in NASA’s Large Observatory constellation, following infrared. Spitzer Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope Showing signs of aging NASA statement
“The Chandra images and data have inspire people of all ages to think about what they might find by looking up into space,” Ellen Stofan, assistant secretary for scientific research at the Smithsonian Institution, said in a separate interview. statement
The latest image is a montage of 25,000 observations made by Chandra over the past 25 years, with some aspects enhanced by contributions from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, which provide a detailed view of the galaxy’s innermost regions. Dusty Center Pillars of Creation Very hot gas
For many astronomers around the world, the anniversary was bittersweet. NASA Budget Plan Cancellation too early Save Chandra
“Chandra is a living legacy that we hope will continue to contribute to space exploration for years to come,” said Lisa Curie, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts. Smithsonian Institution statement
Cassiopeia A
(Image courtesy: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO, Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/D. Milisavljevic (Purdue Univ.), I. De Looze (UGent), T. Temim (Princeton Univ.), Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major, J. Schmidt, K. Arcand)
The first optical image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a supernova remnant located about 11,000 light-years from Earth, was taken by the Chandra Observatory shortly after it was installed in 1999. NASA reports that the observatory observed the glowing ball of matter and energy for more than 2 million seconds, or 23 days. news release
Early observations quickly revealed that powerful X-rays were emitting from Cas A’s center, giving astronomers their first glimpse at the remnant, more specifically a compact neutron star. In the years that followed, astronomers used the X-rays emitted by the remnant to map the distribution of elements in the extremely dense dead star. Their results showed that the original star may have turned inside-out during the explosion, revealing an important step in how massive stars behave as they die.
Recently, data from the observatory Solving the mystery
Shadow of a bat (snake cloud)
(Images courtesy of: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO, Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI, Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major)
This image shows the Ophiuchus Nebula, a star-forming region about 1,300 light-years from Earth. A huge bat-shaped shadow falls on the cloud further away, but is not visible in the image. The shadow was cast by the young star’s bulging planet-forming disk. The shadow is huge, spanning 200 times the diameter of our entire solar system.
In 2020, astronomers observed the shadow “flapping like a bird’s wing” over a 400-day period, leading them to speculate that this could be a planet tugging on the disk and distorting it.
Orion Nebula
(Images courtesy of: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand and J. Major)
In this image, newly formed stars shine white with neon pink hues through the hazy clouds of the Orion Nebula, a large cloud within our galaxy where stars are born. At 1,500 light-years away, the nebula is one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth and can be seen with the naked eye under dark skies.
WR124
(Image source: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO, Infrared: (Herschel) ESA/NASA/Caltech, (Spitzer) NASA/JPL/Caltech, (WISE) NASA/JPL/Caltech, Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/ STScI/Webb ERO production team, image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major)
WR stands for “Wolf-Rayet” star, a rare type of massive star that loses mass rapidly during a short-lived phase before exploding as a supernova.
WR 124 is about 30 times more massive than the Sun and lies 15,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The reds and purples seen in the latest images are dense wind clouds around the star that may be preventing Chandra from finding a companion neutron star in the region. The winds resemble the inside of a delicate flower with blooming petals, and the dozens of white stars scattered around the central star can be likened to dew on the petals.
Astronomers estimate that the star has ejected the equivalent of 10 suns worth of material, which has been blasted away from the star and is cooling farther into space. The debris that survives the star’s death will add to the mass of cosmic dust and provide future generations of star- and planet-forming material.
Crab Nebula
(Images courtesy of: X-ray: (Chandra) NASA/CXC/SAO, (IXPE) NASA/MSFC, Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI, Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand and L. Frattare)
of Crab Nebula
The remaining 20 images released to commemorate Chandra’s 25th anniversary are: Observatory website
