Chandra Release - October 14, 2016

Visual Description: Chandra Archive Collection

The multipanel is a collection of six separate images arranged in a grid, three on top and three on the bottom. Each panel is a composite image, combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with data from other telescopes. In the top row, from left to right:  Westerlund 2 is a cluster of young stars, located 20,000 light-years away. The image shows thick clouds of gas and dust in red and blue from the Hubble Space Telescope, with high-energy X-ray light from Chandra appearing in pinkish purple, mostly as bright dots of light. 3C31 is a radio galaxy located 240 million light-years away. X-ray data from Chandra is shown in blue, and it reveals a jet blasting away from the central galaxy. This is combined with visible light data from the Hubble Space Telescope, which appears in pale yellow. PSR J1509-5850 is a pulsar about 12,000 light-years away. A bright white spot in the center is the pulsar. It has a long tail of X-ray emission (colored in blue) and also an outflow of particles in the opposite direction. The image overlays X-ray and radio emission (pink) on a visible light image of tiny white dots. Bottom row includes: CTB37A is a supernova remnant located 20,000 light-years away in the Milky Way. The debris field glows in X-rays (colored in blue) and radio waves (pink), expanding into a cooler cloud of gas and dust seen in infrared light (golden orange). Abell 665 is a galaxy cluster that has a powerful shockwave. The hot gas in the cluster is shown in X-rays from Chandra (blue), with a large white bow wave shape showing the shock. This is combined with radio emission (purple) and visible light data (white) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The Toothbrush Cluster is a galaxy cluster nicknamed for its resemblance to a toothbrush. The "stem" of the brush is due to radio waves (green), and the diffuse “toothpaste” are X-rays (purple) from Chandra. The image also includes visible light data (white) and a gravitational lensing map (blue) showing the concentration of mass.