NASA’s Chandra Releases Deep Cut From Catalog of Cosmic Recordings
Like an artist who has had a long career, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has a “catalogue” of cosmic records that is impossible to reproduce. To access these X-ray traces, or observations, the ultimate compendium was developed: the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC).
The CSC contains X-ray data detected through the end of 2020 by Chandra, the world’s first X-ray telescope and one of NASA’s “great observatories.” The latest version of the CSC, known as CSC 2.1, contains more than 400,000 unique compact and extended sources and more than 1.3 million individual X-ray detections.
Within the CSC, there is a wealth of information from Chandra observations, ranging from precise positions in the sky to information on detected X-ray energies. This allows scientists using other telescopes – on the ground and in space, including NASA’s James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes – to combine this unique X-ray data with information from other types of light.
The rich catalog of Chandra sources is illustrated in a new image of the Galactic Center, the region around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way called Sagittarius A*. In this image, which spans about 60 light years, a true pinpoint across the entire sky, Chandra detected more than 3,300 individual X-ray emitting sources. This image is the sum of 86 observations added together, representing more than three million seconds of Chandra observing time.
Another new representation of the vast scope of the Chanda source catalog is found in a just-released sonification, the translation of astronomical data into sound. This sonification encompasses the new map which includes 22 years of observations of Chandra in the sky, from its launch to its observations in 2021. Since many X-ray sources were observed multiple times during the Chandra mission, this sonification represents these repeated X-ray observations over time across different grades.
In the sky view, projected in the same way that Earth is often depicted on world maps, the core of the Milky Way is in the center and the galactic plane is horizontal in the middle of the image. A circle appears at the position of each detection and the size of the circle is determined by the number of detections at that location over time. An annual counter appears at the top of the frame. Since Chandra continues to be fully operational, the text changes to “…and beyond” after 2021 as the telescope continues to collect observations. During the video, a collage of images produced by Chandra appears in the background. In the final frames of the video, thumbnail images representing the thousands of Chandra observations taken during the mission appear behind the sky map.
The most recent version of the Chandra source catalog is available at https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/csc/
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
To learn more about Chandra, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/chandra
Learn more about NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/chandra
https://chandra.si.edu
A very deep image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, located in the center of the Milky Way, is shown. The image is dominated by burnt orange, deep gold and blue hues, with a sprinkling of rich green. The area appears both complex and complete, with a dense population of small dots, as well as larger clusters, diffuse areas, and nebulous areas appearing throughout.
In the center of the image, there is a bright, lumpy area of pale gold showing the intense X-ray radiation emanating from the black hole Sagittarius A*. In the surrounding area, there are smaller pieces layered everywhere, ending in a large almost butterfly shape filling much of the screen. The image appears textured, as if dozens of blue and orange glow worms were stopped in their wriggling.
The image offers an unprecedented view of lobes of hot gas stretching a dozen light years on either side of the black hole. These lobes bear witness to powerful eruptions that have occurred several times over the past ten thousand years. The image also contains several mysterious X-ray filaments, some of which could be huge magnetic structures interacting with energetic streams of electrons produced by rapidly rotating neutron stars. Such features are known as pulsar wind nebulae. Chandra detected more than 3,300 individual X-ray emitting sources in this field of view. This image is the sum of 86 observations added together, representing more than three million seconds of Chandra observation time.
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
Joel Wallace
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov
