To help commemorate NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, four composite images are being released.
Swift, launched in 2004, can quickly observe changing events in space in ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray light.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory frequently worked in tandem with Swift to study mysterious objects and phenomena.
These new Chandra/Swift images include a view of the Small Magellanic Cloud, NGC 1097, NGC 4151, and NGC 1365.
As NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory nears its final days in orbit, it is an excellent opportunity to celebrate this telescope and its place in NASA’s fleet of eyes on the universe.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of the many telescopes that frequently teamed up with Swift to make important discoveries about the cosmos. Chandra and Swift have complementary abilities. While Swift can quickly capture rapidly-changing events in space in ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray light, Chandra is able to gather more detailed data with its sharp X-ray vision. When combined, these two telescopes helped provide a more complete picture of events and objects in space than either could alone.
This new image collection is just a sample of the many cosmic objects that Chandra and Swift have both observed in the pursuit of learning more about the mysteries of space
Chandra & Swift Galaxy Image Collection, Labeled. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
Top left: The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbors, and orbits around our home galaxy, at a distance of about 200,000 light-years from Earth. This new view of the SMC contains a multitude of layers of light including ultraviolet data from Swift (magenta and cyan), X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton (red, green and navy), infrared data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory (orange), and optical data the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile (pink, peach and purple).
Top right: NGC 1097 is a spiral galaxy about 48 million light-years from Earth that contains a supermassive black hole about 140 million times more massive than our Sun. The region around the black hole glows brightly in X-rays as material nearing the black hole is heated to millions of degrees. In this combined view, X-rays from Chandra (yellow and orange) have been combined with ultraviolet data from Swift (blue) along with an optical light image from Hubble and a ground-based telescope (red, green, and blue).
Bottom left: NGC 4151 is also a spiral galaxy with an actively-growing supermassive black hole at its center. The X-ray emission detected by Chandra (orange) has been attributed to an outburst powered by the black hole. Ultraviolet data and X-ray light detected by Swift (magenta) has been combined with the Chandra data and added to an optical light image taken from the ground by an astrophotographer.
Bottom right: There is another growing giant hole at the center of the galaxy NGC 1365. Astronomers call these very bright cores “active galactic nuclei” (or AGN), which are fueled by a steady flow of material streaming onto the black hole. In this composite, there are X-rays from Chandra (purple) and Swift (magenta), ultraviolet data from Swift (teal), and an optical light image from a ground-based telescope.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Visual Description:
Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)
A multilayered, composite image of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which resembles a highly detailed splatter painting. Here, splashes of burnt orange, neon purple, cyan blue, and brilliant white, in flecks ranging from minuscule pinpricks to fat smears, form a cloud roughly shaped like an upside-down letter V.
NGC 1097
A bright, composite image of spiral galaxy NGC 1097, viewed face on. The galaxy has gleaming cyan blue and neon purple arms spiraling around a central black hole, which is awash in glowing yellow X-ray light. At our upper right, the ends of the neatly corkscrewing arms are diffused, spread around a neighboring satellite galaxy.
NGC 4151
A brilliantly crisp composite image of spiral galaxy NGC 4151, viewed face on. The galaxy has a bright, golden orange and purple core with spiraling neon blue arms that are tight around the actively growing supermassive black hole at the center, but spread and grow wispy as they extend outward. At our lower left is a second spiral galaxy, NGC 4156, which appears small by comparison, and whose colorful, tightly wound arms give it the appearance of a swirly lollipop.
NGC 1365
A composite image of spiral galaxy NGC 1365, viewed face on. The galaxy has a glowing pale-yellow core at its center, surrounded by a muddle of clouds in various shades of purple. Extending out of this dense core are cloudy, light blue arms, which spiral outwards in an oval shape, stretching toward our upper left and lower right.
Fast Facts for Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC):
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO and ESA/XMM-Newton; UV: NASA/Penn State Univ/Swift and NASA/CAS/CNES/John Hoplins Univ. Applied Physics Laboratory; Optical: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/MCELS Team/Middlebury College/F. Winkler; Infrared: ESA/NASA/JPL-CalTech/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date:
October 8, 2026
Scale:
Image is about 329 arcmin (19,000 light-years) across.
