Chandra Release - October 25, 2011

Visual Description: CID 1711 and CID 3083

The two-panel display has X-ray and optical images of the galaxies CID 1711 (left) and CID 3083 (right). Each features a bright purple blob in the center of each image. These blobs are surrounded by golden yellow shapes, all on a darker background. In these images, the data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in purple and Hubble Space Telescope data are in gold.  In the X-ray image, the purple spots have an irregular if somewhat circular shape, while in the optical image, they appear like spiral and elliptical galaxies. These two composite images show a sample of the pairs of galaxies that are undergoing close encounters in the survey. In both images, the point-like X-ray source near the center is generated by gas that has been heated to millions of degrees as it falls toward a supermassive black hole located in the middle of its host galaxy. The other faint X-ray emission around the sources may be caused by hot gas associated with the pair of galaxies.