Chandra Release - July 2, 2002

Visual Description: Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is provided in X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, showing a pair of interacting galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers. Chandra's image in bright orange and red hues highlights the energetic central regions of the two interacting galaxies, NGC 5194 (center) and its smaller companion (upper left) NGC 5195, that are collectively called the Whirlpool Galaxy. An inset contains an expanded image of the central region of NGC 5194. Extending to the north and south of the bright nucleus are clouds of multimillion-degree gas, with diameters of about 1500 light years and 500 light years, respectively. The similarity of these features with ones observed at radio wavelengths suggests that the gas is heated by high-velocity jets produced near a supermassive black hole in the nucleus of the galaxy.  On the lower left of the inset image is a faint source identified with a supernova discovered in 1994, and subsequently determined to be an unusual Type Ic supernova. The massive stars responsible for these supernovas are thought to have lost their outer layers of hydrogen and helium gas thousands of years before the explosion, either through evaporation or transfer to a companion.