Chandra Release - June 27, 2016

Visual Description: VLA J2130+12

The X-ray image of the binary system containing a quiescent black hole VLA J2130+12 in a globular cluster features a bright, glowing purple object in the center, surrounded by smaller dots of light. The overall visual texture of the image is dense with dots, like a massive pile of bright diamonds with a purple glow towards the center of the pile.  The size of the objects in the image varies, with the central purple glow being larger than the smaller objects surrounding it.  The large panel shows a composite Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble optical image of the M15 globular cluster located in our galaxy. In it, the Chandra data are colored in purple and the optical data are colored red, green and blue, showing up primarily as white and pale yellow with hints of blue. The specific source being studied here at the lower right, about 8 o'clock, is bright in radio waves, as shown in a close-up VLA image pullout, colored in green. The Chandra data of the same source looks black and reveals it can only be giving off a very small amount of X-rays.