Credit: NASA, CXC, NRAO, ESA, Michael McDonald (MIT); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

This image of the Phoenix cluster combines data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope and shows how the supermassive black hole at the center promotes large amounts of star formation, instead of hinders it.

X-rays from Chandra depict extremely hot gas in purple. Optical light data from Hubble show galaxies in yellow, and filaments of cooler gas where stars are forming in light blue.

Outburst-generated jets, represented in red, are seen in radio waves by the VLA. As the jets push outward, they inflated cavities, or bubbles, in the hot gas that pervades the cluster.

New observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope trace the cooling gas along those cavities, which enables the Phoenix cluster to form stars at such a high rate.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-107

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/