Black Holes Raze Thousands of Stars to Fuel Growth

Astronomers have found evidence for the destruction of thousands of stars in multiple galaxies, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Growing black holes within dense stellar clusters are thought to be responsible for this large-scale devastation. This process could account for "intermediate mass black holes" through the runaway growth of stellar-mass black holes. The new study involved the observations of over a hundred galaxies with Chandra.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Washington State Univ./V. Baldassare et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI

NASA’s IXPE Sends First Science Image

In time for Valentine’s Day, NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer which launched Dec. 9, 2021, has delivered its first imaging data since completing its month-long commissioning phase.

This image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A combines some of the first X-ray data collected by NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, shown in magenta, with high-energy X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, in blue. Credits: NASA/CXC/SAO/IXPE

Ten facts about Chandra X-ray Observatory

Via Chandra.Harvard.Edu

1. Chandra flies 200 times higher than Hubble - more than 1/3 of the way to the moon!
2. Chandra can observe X-rays from clouds of gas so vast that it takes light five million years to go from one side to the other!
3. During maneuvers from one target to the next, Chandra slews more slowly than the minute hand on a clock.
4. At 45 feet long, Chandra is the largest satellite the shuttle has ever launched.
5. If Colorado were as smooth as Chandra’s mirrors, Pikes Peak would be less than one inch tall
6. Chandra’s resolving power is equivalent to the ability to read a stop sign at a distance of twelve miles.
7. The electrical power required to operate the Chandra spacecraft and instruments is 2 kilowatts, about the same power as a hair dryer.
8. The light from some of the quasars observed by Chandra will have been traveling through space for ten billion years.
9. STS-93, the space mission that deployed Chandra, was the first NASA shuttle mission commanded by a woman.
10. Chandra can observe X-rays from particles up to the last second before they fall into a black hole!

Everything you ever wanted to know about V1647 Ori and McNeil's Nebula

 

An artist's impression of what might be happening behind the thick dust disc surrounding the young Sun-like star V1647 Ori. X-ray observations by ESA's XMM-Newton, NASA's Chandra and Japan's Suzaku space observatories have probed the interior of the dust disc to find a rapidly-rotating star spinning with a period of one day. At 80 per cent the mass of our Sun and with a diameter approximately four times larger, spinning at this rate nears break-up speed for a star of this size. The data also suggest that matter is accreting onto the stellar surface in two pancake-shaped hotspots located on opposite sides of the star, in which the matter heats up and the high temperature plasma is confined. Copyright: ESA/C. Carreau

How to lose a thousand tons of atmosphere per second

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have seen dramatic changes in the upper atmosphere of a faraway planet. Just after a violent flare on its parent star bathed it in intense X-ray radiation, the planet’s atmosphere gave off a powerful burst of evaporation. The observations give a tantalising glimpse of the changing climates and weather on planets outside our Solar System.

This artist’s impression shows exoplanet HD 189733b, as it passes in front of its parent star, called HD 189733A. Hubble’s instruments observed the system in 2010, and in 2011 following a large flare from the star (depicted in the image). Following the flare, Hubble observed the planet’s atmosphere evaporating at a rate of over 1000 tonnes per second. In this picture, the surface of the star, which is around 80% the mass of the Sun, is based on observations of the Sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA, ESA, L. Calçada

All about NuSTAR

A small X-ray telescope was boosted into orbit by an air-launched Pegasus XL rocket Wednesday, June 13, 2012, the first step in an ambitious low-cost mission to study supermassive black holes believed to be lurking at the cores of galaxies like Earth's Milky Way and to probe the creation of heavy elements in the cataclysmic death throes of massive stars.

Artist's concept of NuSTAR on orbit. NuSTAR has a 10-m (30') mast that deploys after launch to separate the optics modules (right) from the detectors in the focal plane (left). The spacecraft, which controls NuSTAR's pointings, and the solar panels are with the focal plane. NuSTAR has two identical optics modules in order to increase sensitivity. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A very luminous supernova seen while breaking its gas cocoon

Observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have provided the first X-ray evidence of a supernova shock wave breaking through a cocoon of gas surrounding the star that exploded. This discovery may help astronomers understand why some supernovas are much more powerful than others.

Composite image (X-ray / Optical) of SN 2010jl. The supernova is the bright object near the top right of the galaxy. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Royal Military College of Canada/P.Chandra et al; Optical: NASA/STScI

A Star Turns Inside Out

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has mapped the debris of a supernova and discovered that the explosion may have turned the original star inside out. Peering into the heart of the inverted star, astronomers have found the atoms of life itself.

Credit: Science@NASA