Webb and Chandra Telescopes In Space Team Up For Amazing Imagery

Space.com

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

Transcript

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 —

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