Chandra Release - June 23, 2015

Visual Description: Circinus X-1

This image of Circinus X-1 is an X-ray and optical composite showing a colorful display of stars in the night sky and light echoes from a neutron star. The image is dominated by blue, green, pink and yellow colors in a patchy texture on a dense field of tiny stars. In the center of the image, there are two slightly separated rectangular shapes that show part of a series of concentric circles. The image can be compared to a kaleidoscope.  The object Circinus X-1 contains a neutron star -- the collapsed core left behind after a star exploded -- in orbit with a massive star. The Chandra data reveal a set of four rings that appear as circles around Circinus X-1. These rings can be seen in the composite image where X-rays from Chandra are red, green, and blue corresponding to low, medium, and high-energy X-rays respectively. The X-rays have been combined with a view in visible light from the Digitized Sky Survey. The sharp edges of the 2 rectangular shapes are caused by the large size of the X-ray rings compared to the relatively small field-of-view of the Chandra detectors, providing only partial coverage.