Chandra Release - July 2, 2014

Visual Description: NGC 4258 (M106)

The image features a dramatic and colorful composite view of the spiral galaxy NGC 4258. The galaxy is predominantly colored in electric blue and purple, with pale red and yellow. As the name suggests, the galaxy has a spiral shape, but with a distinct bright center and unusual "extra" arms extending outwards. The arms appear to twist and curve around each other.  A combination of space and ground-based observations, including X-ray data from Chandra, helped reveal the nature of the unusual arms in NGC 4258. These arms have been known for decades, but their origin has remained mysterious to astronomers. In visible (shown in the pale yellow) and infrared (red) light, two prominent arms emanate from the bright nucleus and spiral outward. These arms are dominated by young, bright stars, which light up the gas within the arms. But in radio (purple) and X-ray (blue) images, two additional spiral arms are seen. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are blue, radio data from the NSF's Karl Jansky Very Large Array are purple, optical data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are yellow, and infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are red.