Chandra Release - March 13, 2017

Visual Description: 47 Tucanae

This graphic of the source called 47 Tucanae X9 shows an artist's illustration in the main panel and an inset with an X-ray image of a binary system, which consists of two stars orbiting each other. The illustration depicts a black hole and a white dwarf star, with the black hole's accretion disk stretching near to white dwarf. The accretion disk is made up of swirling gas and dust in red and orange colors. The black hole in the center of the illustration is characterized by its dark, circular shape. The white dwarf star on the left side of the illustration is larger and brighter than the black hole. The Chandra X-ray Observatory image in the inset of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae has an arrow pointing to the X9 binary system. The X-ray data resembles a clump of bright holiday lights where low, medium, and high-energy X-rays are colored red, green, and blue respectively.