High-Energy Activity Heats Up the Whirlpool
chandra_129 July 2nd, 2002
Credit: NASA/CXC/U.Md/A.Wilson et al.
Chandra's image highlights the energetic central regions of the two interacting galaxies that are collectively called the Whirlpool Galaxy. A large number of point-like X-ray sources due to black holes and neutron stars can also be seen. The inset shows an expanded image of the central region of the larger galaxy, NGC 5194. Extending to the north and south of the bright nucleus are clouds of multimillion degree gas that are thought to be heated by high-velocity jets produced near a supermassive black hole in the nucleus of the galaxy. On the lower left is a faint source of X-rays produced by a shock wave from a rare type of supernova that was observed to explode in 1994.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0158/
Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
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Image Details
Distance
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- 129
- Subject Category
- C.5.5.1 C.5.1.1 C.3.1.8
- Subject Name
- Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), NGC 5194, NGC 5195
- Credits
- NASA/CXC/U.Md/A.Wilson et al.
- Release Date
- 2002-07-02
- Lightyears
- 30,000,000
- Redshift
- 30,000,000
- Reference Url
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0158/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Chandra
- Instrument
- ACIS
- Color Assignment
- Orange
- Band
- X-ray
- Bandpass
- X-ray
- Central Wavelength
- 0.8267
- Start Time
- 2001-06-23T18:47:13
- Integration Time
- 27150
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 202.4906498, 47.2183407, 202.4695536, 47.1953316
- Reference Dimension
- 2100.0, 2100.0, 1709.0, 1650.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1051.0, 1051.0, 855.5, 826.0
- Scale
- 7.92105e-05, 7.921051e-05, 1.57829e-05, 1.5782879e-05
- Rotation
- -0.01
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
- Creator (Curator)
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
- URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu
- Name
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
- Telephone
- 617.496.7941
- Address
- 60 Garden St.
- City
- Cambridge
- State/Province
- MA
- Postal Code
- 02138
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
- Publisher
- Chandra X-Ray Center
- Publisher ID
- chandra
- Resource ID
- 0158_xray_comp.tif
- Resource URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0158/0158_xray_comp.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2012-07-27T16:36:08-04:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
