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Explanation: A bevy of black holes and neutron stars shine as bright, point-like sources against bubbles of million degree gas in this false-color x-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The striking picture shows the central regions of two galaxies, NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, locked in a titanic collision some 60 million light-years distant in the constellation Corvus. In visible light images, long, luminous, tendril-like structures emanating from the wreckage lend the pair their popular moniker, the Antennae Galaxies. Galactic collisions are now thought to be fairly common, but when they happen individual stars rarely collide. Instead gas and dust clouds merge and compress, triggering furious bursts of massive star formation with thousands of resulting supernovae. The exploding stars litter the scene with bubbles of shocked hot gas and collapsed stellar cores. Transfixed by this cosmic accident astronomers watch and are beginning to appreciate the collision-driven evolution of galaxies, not unlike our own.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: black hole - NGC 4038 - NGC 4039 - antenna galaxy - star formation - neutron star
Publications with words: black hole - NGC 4038 - NGC 4039 - antenna galaxy - star formation - neutron star
See also:
- Simulation: Two Black Holes Merge
- The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
- APOD: 2024 May 8 Á Visualization: A Black Hole Accretion Disk
- APOD: 2024 May 7 Á Black Hole Accreting with Jet
- APOD: 2024 May 5 Á A Black Hole Disrupts a Passing Star
- APOD: 2024 April 1 Á Swirling Magnetic Field around Our Galaxys Central Black Hole
- APOD: 2024 February 7 Á The Heart Shaped Antennae Galaxies