Chandra Release - May 14, 2009

Visual Description: 3C305

3C305 is an optical, radio and X-ray image of an unusual looking galaxy. The galaxy has two bright elongated regions around the center. The galaxy's shape can be described as irregularly elliptical, as if you’re only seeing a portion of it.  It almost resembles a koala laying down, hugging the darkness. The colors of the galaxy are predominantly dark blue, red-orange and blue-green.  Activity from a supermassive black hole is responsible for the intriguing appearance of this galaxy. The structures in red-orange and blue-green are X-ray and optical images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope respectively. The optical data is from oxygen emission only, and therefore the full extent of the galaxy is not seen. Radio data are shown in darker blue and are from the Very Large Array, as well as the Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network.  An unexpected feature of this image of 3C305 is that the radio emission -- produced by a jet from the central black hole -- does not closely overlap with the X-ray data. The X-ray emission does, however, seem to be associated with the optical emission.