See composites created using James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory imagery. A pair of galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster are the targets.
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
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TechTranscript
00:00Visit Chandra's beautiful universe.
00:05Chandra Webb Composites
00:10Four composite images deliver dazzling views from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
00:15and James Webb Space Telescope of two galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster.
00:22Each image combines Chandra's X-rays, a form of high-energy light,
00:27with infrared data from previously released Webb images.
00:31Data from the Hubble Space Telescope and retired Spitzer Space Telescope,
00:35plus ESO's XMM-Newton and the ESO's New Technology Telescope, is also used.
00:42While most of these wavelengths of light are invisible to the human eye,
00:46the data have been mapped to colors so we can explore these cosmic wonders in details within.
00:51The data in these images have been released to the public before,
00:55and this is the first time they have been combined in this way.
00:59The images include NGC 346, a star cluster in a nearby galaxy,
01:04the Small Magellanic Cloud, about 200,000 light-years from Earth.
01:09Webb shows plumes and arcs of gas and dust that stars and planets use
01:13as source material during their formation.
01:17The purple cloud on the left, seen with Chandra,
01:20is the remains of a supernova explosion from a massive star.
01:24The Chandra data also reveals young, hot, and massive stars
01:28that send powerful winds outward from their surfaces.
01:32NGC 1672 is a spiral galaxy, but one that astronomers categorize as a barred spiral.
01:39In regions close to their centers, the arms of barred spiral galaxies
01:43are mostly in a straight band of stars across the center that encloses the core,
01:48as opposed to other spirals that have arms that twist all the way to their core.
01:52The Chandra data reveals compact objects like neutron stars or black holes,
01:57pulling material from companion stars as well as the remnants of exploded stars.
02:02Messier 16, also known as the Eagle Nebula, is a famous region of the sky,
02:07often referred to as the Pillars of Creation.
02:11The Webb image shows the dark columns of gas and dust,
02:14shrouding the few remaining fledgling stars just being formed.
02:18The Chandra sources, which look like dots,
02:21are young stars that give off copious amounts of X-rays.
02:25Messier 74 is also a spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way,
02:30that we see face-on from our vantage point on Earth.
02:34It is about 32 million light-years away.
02:37In the composite, Webb outlines gas and dust in the infrared,
02:41while Chandra data spotlights high-energy activity from stars at X-ray wavelengths.
02:47Hubble optical data showcases additional stars and dust along the dust lanes.
02:52We look forward to many more new images from Chandra data and its companion telescopes,
02:58both in space and on the ground, as this exciting era of astronomy continues.
03:04Transcription by ESO. Translation by —