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Animations & Video
Black Holes
 |  | Animation of Black Hole in Elliptical Galaxy
This artist's animation depicts a journey into the center of an elliptical galaxy. After traveling past stars in the outer part of the galaxy, the supermassive black hole located at the bright center of the galaxy becomes visible. This black hole is surrounded by hot gas shown in red and yellow, which acts as fuel for the black hole engine. Power generated by the engine flows away from the black hole via jets of high-energy particles. |
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Comparing Different Black Holes
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This sequence shows four black holes from the Bootes field. The first two black holes are obscured by thick rings of gas. Because such a ring blocks certain types of radiation, these black holes are only are seen in X-ray (blue) and infrared (red) light. The last two black holes are not enshrouded by this ring of material, and, therefore, emit X-ray, infrared, and optical (green) radiation. These objects helps astronomers better understand the properties of these monster black holes.
[Runtime: 0:08]
(X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Hickox et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech/P.Eisenhardt & D.Stern et al.; Optical: NOAO/B.Jannuzi & A.Dey et al.)
Related Chandra Images:
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Illustrations of Black Hole Eclipse
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These artist's representations, which are not to scale, explain how a supermassive black hole and the hot gas disk around it are eclipsed. The first illustration shows how light from the bright disk surrounding the black hole can directly reach Chandra. The second illustration demonstrates how this light can be blocked by a dense cloud of gas, which causes only reflected light from the disk to reach Chandra.
[Runtime: 0:15]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
Related Chandra Images:
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Images of M33 X-7
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This sequence begins with a wide-field optical image from Kitt Peak of M33, a spiral galaxy about 3 million light years from Earth, and then zooms into a view from the Gemini telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Next, the view zooms into an even smaller field, from the Hubble Space Telescope, that includes M33 X-7, the most massive known black hole to be formed from the collapse of a star. The final image is a composite
of the region around M33 X-7 that contains both the Chandra and Hubble
data.
[Runtime: 0:35]
(Kitt Peak: NOAO/AURA/NSF/T.A.Rector; Gemini: AURA/Gemini Obs./SDSU/J.Orosz et al.; HST: NASA/STScI/SDSU/J.Orosz et al.; Chandra: NASA/CXC/CfA/P.Plucinsky et al.)
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Animation of a Black Hole Pulling Matter from Companion Star
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This animation shows the orbit of the binary system GRO J1655-40. Gas is being pulled away from a normal star, shown in blue, and crashes onto a red disk that is spinning around a central black hole. The animation then zooms in to show a closer view of the disk. Some of the gas in the disk spirals inwards and falls onto the black hole, generating light along the way, and some of it is blown away in a wind.
[Runtime: 0:19]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
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Animation of Black Hole in Elliptical Galaxy
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This artist's animation depicts a journey into the center of an elliptical galaxy. After traveling past stars in the outer part of the galaxy, the supermassive black hole located at the bright center of the galaxy becomes visible. This black hole is surrounded by hot gas shown in red and yellow, which acts as fuel for the black hole engine. Power generated by the engine flows away from the black hole via jets of high-energy particles.
[Runtime: 0:25]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
Related Chandra Images:
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Chandra Images of Elliptical Galaxies
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This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.)
Related Chandra Images:
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Chandra, Infrared, and Radio Images of NGC 4696
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This sequence of images shows NGC 4696, the elliptical galaxy at the center of the Centaurus galaxy cluster. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole, one of nine black holes studied recently using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. An infrared image, in green, reveals the stars in the elliptical galaxy. Next, the blue radio image shows high-energy jets generated by the black hole. Finally, Chandra's X-ray image in red traces hot gas located around the center of the galaxy. Enormous cavities in this gas were created by jets from the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:16]
View Stills
(X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/McMaster Univ./W.Harris; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/G.Taylor)
Related Chandra Images:
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Sequence of Black Hole Illustrations
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This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
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Animation of Eruption from Supermassive Black Hole
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This animation depicts an eruption caused by a supermassive black hole. Gas and dust (reddish-brown disk) are being pulled around by the enormous gravity of the supermassive black hole, which is buried in the center of a large elliptical galaxy. The animation then zooms out to show the full view of the galaxy, which is surrounded by hot gas (red) that pervades the galaxy cluster. White jets, fueled from material falling onto the black hole, then erupt from the black hole and push gas backwards to create the dark cavities in the cluster gas.
[Runtime: 0:17]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
Related Chandra Images:
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Animation of Stars Forming Around Black Hole
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This animation shows a disk of red and yellow gas around a supermassive black hole. As the view pulls back, the formation of stars in the outer regions of the disk is seen. These massive stars form when the gas becomes unstable, despite the black hole's enormous gravitational influence, and collapses inwards.
[Runtime: 0:23]
View Stills
(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)
Related Chandra Images:
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Find more information on Black Holes in the field guide.
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