Chandra ObservatoryVerified account

@chandraxray

Chandra's ongoing mission is to study the X-ray Universe. Operated for NASA by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Legal:

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chandra.si.edu
Joined January 2008
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    May 12

    The supermassive at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, Sagittarius A*, has been imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Chandra and many other telescopes observed Sagittarius A* simultaneously. Explore Sagittarius A* like never before: ⚫

    A composite image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Pointing to the middle of the main image is an inset image of the region around the "event horizon," the boundary of the black hole from which nothing can escape. In the main image, golden orange specks of light and tendrils of neon purple and blue clouds are set against a black background. The oranges and purples were captured in infrared light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The blues represent data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. At the heart of the main image are several bright white dots, including one that contains the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*. Emerging from this bright white dot is an inset image, housed at our upper right. This image is from the Event Horizon Telescope. It shows a bright, orange ring with three golden yellow spots and a red aura... More at: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2022/sgra/
    147 replies . 2,280 retweets 10,309 likes
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  2. May 12

    ⚫Questions about , Sagittarius A*? Ask us at:

    An image of Sagittarius A star captured by the Event Horizon Telescope. It features a bright, orange ring with three golden yellow spots and a red aura, set against a black background. The ring is created by light bending in the intense gravity around the black hole at the center, which has a mass some 4 million times greater than that of our Sun. Superimposed is promotional information about today's Twitter Q and A from 2pm to 3pm eastern time.
    Do you have questions about , Sagittarius A*? Reply with your questions below and science experts & will answer them today at 2pm ET (UTC-04:00)!⚫
    8 replies . 14 retweets 117 likes
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  3. May 12

    Do you have questions about , Sagittarius A*? Reply with your questions below and science experts & will answer them today at 2pm ET (UTC-04:00)!⚫

    An image of Sagittarius A star captured by the Event Horizon Telescope. It features a bright, orange ring with three golden yellow spots and a red aura, set against a black background. The ring is created by light bending in the intense gravity around the black hole at the center, which has a mass some 4 million times greater than that of our Sun. Superimposed is promotional information about today's Twitter Q and A from 2pm to 3pm eastern time.
    93 replies . 116 retweets 674 likes
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  4. Retweeted
    May 12

    We’re lucky to have join us for a conversation on today at 3 pm ET — come ready with questions for our scientists!

    4 replies . 27 retweets 105 likes
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  5. May 10

    Today Chandra is studying a black hole in Serpens. Nearby in the sky is W40, a star-forming region about 1,400 light years from Earth. A young cluster of approximately 500 stars is nested between two "wings" of hot gas blowing from some of the most massive stars in the region.✨

    This is an infrared image of W 40, or Westerhout 40, from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The nebula resembles the shape of a butterfly rotated on its side in shades of reds and pinks. Slightly off center toward the top of the image is where the body of the butterfly would be. This is where about 500 stars are clustered together. It is also the lightest and brightest part of the image. The entire image is dotted with stars that are farther apart than those in the cluster.
    18 replies . 375 retweets 2,331 likes
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  6. Retweeted
    May 6

    In 1998, NASA's space telescope 🔭 was named in honor of Indian-American luminary Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995). Chandra means “moon” 🌙 or “luminous” in Sanskrit. Photo credit:

    Portrait of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
    8 replies . 144 retweets 599 likes
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  7. Retweeted
    May 5

    If a black hole erupts in space and no one is around to observe it, does it make a sound? Not to worry; the Observatory is here with new sonifications from galaxy clusters far, far away. Listen:

    sonify5_perseus.mp4
    1,158 replies . 9,067 retweets 37,930 likes
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  8. May 4

    (2/2) #2 M87 — home of the black hole that gained celebrity status through an image released in 2019 by (the Event Horizon Telescope). More about the sonifications at:

    8 replies . 197 retweets 879 likes
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  9. May 4

    New sonifications of well-known black holes have been released for ⚫! #1 The Perseus galaxy cluster — famous for sound waves detected around its black hole by Chandra, some 57 octaves below middle C. And... (1/2)

    247 replies . 2,394 retweets 9,780 likes
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  10. May 3

    In order to turn Earth into a black hole, we would have to compress all its mass into a region the size of a marble. Just thought you might want to know. ⚫

    The top half of this image is a NASA image of Earth from space. The bottom half of this image shows a several marbles. A single marble in the center is more in focus than the others and is somewhat separate from the group. Lines extend from the sides of the single marble to the sides of image of Earth.
    161 replies . 713 retweets 5,030 likes
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  11. Retweeted
    May 3

    It’s ! The journey to capture an image of a black hole is not an easy one. Learn about the challenges the Event Horizon Telescope has overcome to see the unseeable! 👀📡🌎📡

    14 replies . 201 retweets 686 likes
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  12. May 2

    As material swirls around a supermassive , extreme forces can cause matter to be redirected away from the black hole in the form of jets traveling at almost the speed of light. Image: Cygnus A — its incredible jets span more than 600,000 light years! ⚫

    This is an image of Cygnus A in X-ray, optical, and radio light. A giant blue, elliptical bubble of gas (X-rays) surrounds a bright white X-ray source. Jets shooting outward from both the left and right of the bubble are seen in radio (red) and they extend more than 300,000 light years in each direction.
    18 replies . 252 retweets 974 likes
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  13. Retweeted
    May 2

    It’s ⚫, a special week each year where we spotlight black holes! Join us in celebrating these intriguing objects all week … and don’t be surprised when you see them everywhere! (It’s okay, they’re really quite harmless if you don’t get too close.)

    12 replies . 95 retweets 388 likes
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  14. Apr 29

    Today Chandra is studying 3C58, the remnant of a supernova observed in the year 1181 CE. A pulsar at the center of the remnant is producing jets of X-rays extending trillions of miles — jets responsible for creating the elaborate web of loops & swirls revealed in the image.🐙

    This Chandra X-ray image shows the center of 3C58, which contains a rapidly spinning neutron star, a pulsar, surrounded by a thick ring, or torus, of X-ray emission. The pulsar appears as a bright white object in the center, and the loops and swirls nearby, in hues of blues and reds, resemble an octopus and its arms.
    11 replies . 181 retweets 957 likes
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  15. Apr 28

    Today Chandra is studying M96, a spiral galaxy located about 35 million light years from Earth. The galaxy's core is not exactly at the galactic center and its spiral arms are asymmetrical — features likely caused by gravitational interaction with other galaxies nearby.

    This is an infrared and visible-light image of M96 from Hubble. The spiral galaxy is face-on in the image. The galaxy's dust and gas is unevenly spread throughout weak spiral arms, and its core is not quite in the center of the galaxy.
    28 replies . 493 retweets 3,521 likes
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  16. Retweeted
    Apr 26

    Though our Spitzer telescope ended its observations in 2020, its data continues to be analyzed. We just hit an impressive milestone … 10,000 peer-reviewed science papers have been published about Spitzer’s observations! Here are a few highlights.

    4 replies . 102 retweets 515 likes
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  17. Apr 26

    Today Chandra is gazing at galaxies in Centaurus. Nearby in the sky is planetary nebula Fleming 1, a glowing cloud of gas around 2 white dwarf stars. In the next 10,000 years or so, Fleming 1 will slowly disperse into space. The stars will cool & fade away for billions of years.

    This is an optical image from E S O's Very Large Telescope. The center of the nebula looks like a marquise cut diamond in shape with a bright point of light in the middle. Surrounding the center of the nebula are several clouds of material in colors of greens, muted pinks, and browns. A red jet extends outward from both the upper left and lower right of the nebula.
    11 replies . 217 retweets 1,070 likes
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  18. Apr 25

    : Chandra scientists find that may be demolishing thousands of stars and using their remains to pack on weight. A new survey of over 100 galaxies could help explain how intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are made. ⚫More:

    Tour: Black Holes Raze Thousands of Stars to Fuel Growth
    Black holes may be tearing apart thousands of stars and using their remains to pack on weight. This discovery could help answer key questions about an elusive class of black holes.
    9 replies . 144 retweets 641 likes
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  19. Apr 22

    Today Chandra is peering into . Nearby in the sky is the Lagoon Nebula, a rowdy stellar nursery located about 4,000 light years from Earth. This image spans roughly 4 light years, featuring just a small portion of the whole nebula which is over 55 light years across.

    An image of a section of the Lagoon Nebula in optical light from Hubble. Complex, highly detailed clouds of material are present throughout the image, mostly in shades of red, orange, aqua, and yellow. A large, somewhat hidden, ball of white light lurks behind the cloud-like structures in the middle of the image. This is the giant star Herschel 36. Other, much smaller stars pepper the image, and are present as white dots.
    43 replies . 646 retweets 3,551 likes
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  20. Apr 22

    Chandra's elliptical orbit around takes the spacecraft to an altitude of 133,000 km/82,646 mi (more than 1/3 of the distance to the moon) before returning to its closest approach of 16,000 km/9,942 mi. It takes about 64 hours and 18 minutes to complete an orbit.

    This image is an illustration of Chandra's orbit around Earth from "NASA's Eyes" solar system interactive. On the left side of the image, various Earth statistics are given, such as length of year, distance from Sun, and number of moons. Visit NASA's Eyes for more at: https://eyes.nasa.gov/
    2 replies . 99 retweets 562 likes
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