Chandra Release - April 19, 2002

Visual Description: Arp 220

The Chandra X-ray Observatory image of a peculiar galaxy, Arp 220, has dominant colors of black and soft red-orange, with a couple small yellow or blue spots in the very center of the galaxy.  Chandra’s X-ray observations of Arp 220 gives new insight into what happens when two galaxies the size of the Milky Way collide. The image shows a bright central region at the waist of a glowing hour-glass-shaped cloud of multimillion degree gas that is rushing out of the galaxy at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour. This "superwind" is thought to be due to explosive activity generated by the formation of hundreds of millions of new stars.  Farther out, spanning a distance of 75,000 light years, are giant lobes of hot gas. These could be galactic remnants that have been flung into intergalactic space by the early impact of the collision.