Why is chandra important

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is currently in orbit around Earth, peering out into the universe in search of extremely high-temperature events in space. These events give off X-rays, which are a highly energized form of light that cannot be seen by human eyes.

X-rays can't make it through the Earth's atmosphere, so for astronomers to study them, X-ray telescopes like the Chandra must be based in space. The Chandra collects X-rays, some from as far as ten billion light years away, and uses a high resolution camera HRC to interpret them into images. The Chandra also contains scientific instruments that can measure the strength and temperature of X-rays.

The infrared light in this image shows synchrotron radiation, formed from streams of charged particles spiraling around the pulsar's strong magnetic fields. The visible light is emission from oxygen that has been heated by higher-energy ultraviolet and X-ray synchrotron radiation. The delicate tendrils seen in visible light form what astronomers call a "cage" around the rich tapestry of synchrotron radiation, which in turn encompasses the energetic fury of the X-ray disk and jets.

These multiwavelength interconnected structures illustrate that the pulsar is the main energy source for the emission seen by all three telescopes. The powerhouse "engine" energizing the entire system is a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star, the super-dense crushed core of the exploded star.

The tiny dynamo is blasting out blistering pulses of radiation 30 times a second with unbelievable clockwork precision. The movie is available to planetariums and other centers of informal learning worldwide. The interplay of the multiwavelength observations illuminate all of these structures. Without combining X-ray, infrared and visible light, you don't get the full picture.

Figure This visualization features a three-dimensional multiwavelength representation of the Crab Nebula, a pulsar wind nebula that is the remains of an exploded star. Summers, J. Olmsted, L. Hustak, J. DePasquale, G. This view zooms in to present the Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra images of the Crab Nebula, each highlighting one of the nested structures in the system.

The video then begins a slow buildup of the three-dimensional X-ray structure, showing the pulsar and a ringed disk of energized material, and adding jets of particles firing off from opposite sides of the energetic dynamo.

This distinctive form of radiation occurs when streams of charged particles spiral around magnetic field lines. There is also infrared emission from dust and gas. Looking like a cage around the entire system, this shell of glowing gas consists of tentacle-shaped filaments of ionized oxygen oxygen missing one or more electrons.

The tsunami of particles unleashed by the pulsar is pushing on this expanding debris cloud like an animal rattling its cage. They reveal that the nebula is not a classic supernova remnant as once commonly thought. Instead, the system is better classified as a pulsar wind nebula. A traditional supernova remnant consists of a blast wave, and debris from the supernova that has been heated to millions of degrees. In a pulsar wind nebula, the system's inner region consists of lower-temperature gas that is heated up to thousands of degrees by the high-energy synchrotron radiation.

You can understand the energy from the pulsar at the core moving out to the synchrotron cloud, and then further out to the filaments of the cage. Their initial step was reviewing past research on the Crab Nebula, an intensely studied object that formed from a supernova seen in by Chinese astronomers. The three-dimensional interpretation is guided by scientific data, knowledge and intuition, with artistic features filling out the structures. The effort combines a direct connection to the science and scientists of NASA's Astrophysics missions with attention to audience needs to enable youth, families and lifelong learners to explore fundamental questions in science, experience how science is done, and discover the universe for themselves.

It helps audiences understand how and why astronomers use multiple regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to explore and learn about our universe. Eventually all four clusters — each with a mass of at least several hundred trillion times that of the Sun — will merge to form one of the most massive objects in the universe.

Clusters consist of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies embedded in hot gas, and contain an even larger amount of invisible dark matter. Sometimes two galaxy clusters collide, as in the case of the Bullet Cluster , and occasionally more than two will collide at the same time. It contains two pairs of colliding galaxy clusters that are heading toward one another. The Chandra data revealed for the first time a shock wave — similar to the sonic boom from a supersonic aircraft — in hot gas visible with Chandra in the northern pair's collision.

Because this process depends on how far a merger has progressed, Abell offers a valuable case study, since the northern and the southern pairs of clusters are at different stages of merging.

By contrast, in the northern pair, where the collision and merger has progressed further, the location of the heavy elements has been strongly influenced by the collision. The highest abundances are found between the two cluster centers and to the left side of the cluster pair, while the lowest abundances are in the center of the cluster on the left side of the image. Data from the 6. Figure Each pair in the system contains two galaxy clusters that are well on their way to merging.

In the northern top pair seen in the composite image, the centers of each cluster have already passed by each other once, about to million years ago, and will eventually swing back around. Schellenberger et al. When the star ran out of fuel, it collapsed onto itself and blew up as a supernova, possibly briefly becoming one of the brightest objects in the sky.

Although astronomers think that this happened around the year , there are no verifiable historical records to confirm this. Shortly after Chandra was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, , astronomers directed the observatory to point toward Cas A. Near the center of the intricate pattern of the expanding debris from the shattered star, the image revealed, for the first time, a dense object called a neutron star that the supernova left behind.

A new video shows the evolution of Cas A over time, enabling viewers to watch as incredibly hot gas — about 20 million degrees Fahrenheit — in the remnant expands outward. Hubble data from a single time period are shown to emphasize the changes in the Chandra data. Sato et al. Figure This video shows Chandra observations from to , or about the time it takes for a child to enter kindergarten and then graduate from high school.

This gives astronomers a rare chance to watch as a cosmic object changes on human timescales, giving them new insight into the physics involved. For example, particles in the blue outer shock wave carry more energy than those produced by the most powerful particle accelerators on Earth. As this blast wave hits material in its path it slows down, sending a shock wave backwards at speeds of millions of miles per hour video credit: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Published on 26 August The blast wave is composed of shock waves, similar to the sonic booms generated by a supersonic aircraft.

These expanding shock waves produce X-ray emission and are sites where particles are being accelerated to energies that reach about two times higher than the most powerful accelerator on Earth, the LHC Large Hadron Collider. These unusual reverse shocks are likely caused by the blast wave encountering clumps of material surrounding the remnant, as Sato and team discuss in their study.

This causes the blast wave to slow down more quickly, which re-energizes the reverse shock, making it brighter and faster. Particles are also accelerated to colossal energies by these inward moving shocks, reaching about 30 times the energies of the LHC.

In addition to finding the central neutron star , Chandra data have revealed the distribution of elements essential for life ejected by the explosion, have constructed a remarkable three dimensional model of the supernova remnant, and much more. These were combined with images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between and This long-term look at Cas A allowed astronomers Dan Patnaude of CfA and Robert Fesen of Dartmouth College to learn more about the physics of the explosion and the resulting remnant from both the X-ray and optical data.

In addition to finding the central neutron star, Chandra data have revealed the distribution of elements essential for life ejected by the explosion, clues about the details of how the star exploded, and much more. Chandra itself offered a significant leap in capability when it launched in It can observe X-ray sources — exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter around black holes — times fainter than those observed by previous X-ray telescopes.

Figure Goddard scientist Will Zhang holds mirror segments made of silicon. The panel also deemed two other technologies — full-shell mirrors and adjustable optics — as being able to fulfill the requirements of the conceptual Lynx Observatory. This means future observatories could carry far more mirrors, creating a larger collection area for snagging X-rays emanating from high-energy phenomena in the universe.

Figure X-ray observatories like Chandra give us a new view of our universe beyond what we can see with our eyes. Goddard astrophysicist Dr. These include a couple X-ray observatories now being investigated as potential astrophysics Probe-class missions and another now being considered by the Japanese.

It has witnessed powerful eruptions from supermassive black holes. Astronomers have also used Chandra to map how the elements essential to life are spread from supernova explosions. For example, astronomers now use Chandra to study the effects of dark energy, test the impact of stellar radiation on exoplanets, and observe the outcomes of gravitational wave events.

It took decades of collaboration — between scientists and engineers, private companies and government agencies, and more — to make Chandra a reality. Northrup Grumman was and continues to be a prime contractor for Chandra, employing many staff members at the OCC.

Draper decided to expand and not renew the OCC lease due to their own company growth. The new OCC brings all of the operational teams into one space to facilitate collaboration and situational awareness, but uses glass walls and physical separation to manage sound so individual team members can still effectively perform focused technical work.

They also created a purpose-built area for our spacecraft simulator, which was an important upgrade that will serve the mission well going forward. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

The corona is the outer atmosphere of a star. The results confirm that CMEs are produced in magnetically active stars and are relevant to stellar physics, and they also open the opportunity to systematically study such dramatic events in stars other than the Sun. Moreover, there is also expected to be an additional motion, always directed upwards, due to the CME associated with the flare".

The HETGS High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer aboard Chandra is the only instrument that allows measurements of the motions of coronal plasmas with speeds of just a few tens of thousands of miles per hour. This is in excellent agreement with the expected behavior for the material linked to the stellar flare.

Figure A giant stellar eruption detected for the first time. This artist's illustration depicts a CME from a star. The observed speed of the CME, however, is significantly lower than expected. This suggests that the magnetic field in the active stars is probably less efficient in accelerating CMEs than the solar magnetic field. This event likely signaled the merger of two neutron stars and could give astronomers fresh insight into how neutron stars — dense stellar objects packed mainly with neutrons — are built.

If the jet is pointed along the line of sight to the Earth, a flash, or burst, of gamma rays can be detected.

If the jet is not pointed in our direction, a different signal is needed to identify the merger. Figure These images show the location of an event, discovered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, that likely signals the merger of two neutron stars. Now, with the observation of a bright flare of X-rays, astronomers have found another signal, and discovered that two neutron stars likely merged to form a new, heavier and fast-spinning neutron star with an extraordinarily strong magnetic field.

The source is located in the Chandra Deep Field-South, the deepest X-ray image ever taken that contains almost 12 weeks of Chandra observing time, taken at various intervals over several years. The source appeared on March 22nd, and was discovered later in analysis of archival data. The X-rays showed a characteristic signature that matched those predicted for a newly-formed magnetar — a neutron star spinning around hundreds of times per second and possessing a tremendously strong magnetic field about a quadrillion times that of Earth's.

The amount of X-ray emission stayed roughly constant in X-ray brightness for about 30 minutes, then decreased in brightness by more than a factor of over 6. This showed that the neutron star merger produced a new, larger neutron star and not a black hole. That source, known as GW, produced a burst of gamma rays and an afterglow in light detected by many other telescopes, including Chandra.

Xue's team think that XT2 would also have been a source of gravitational waves, however it occurred before Advanced LIGO started its first observing run, and it was too distant to have been detected in any case. The source is in the outskirts of its host galaxy, which aligns with the idea that supernova explosions that left behind the neutron stars kicked them out of the center a few billion years earlier. The galaxy itself also has certain properties — including a low rate of star formation compared to other galaxies of a similar mass — that are much more consistent with the type of galaxy where the merger of two neutron stars is expected to occur.

Massive stars are young and are associated with high rates of star formation. However, both estimates are highly uncertain because they depend on the detection of just one object each, so more examples are needed. Check out a new immersive, ultra-high-definition visualization. In this new visualization, the blue and cyan colors represent X-ray emission from hot gas, with temperatures of tens of millions of degrees; red shows ultraviolet emission from moderately dense regions of cooler gas, with temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees; and yellow shows of the cooler gas with the highest densities.

Sometimes clumps of gas will collide with gas ejected by other stars, resulting in a flash of X-rays when the gas is heated up, and then it quickly cools down. Farther away from the viewer, the movie also shows collisions of fast stellar winds producing X-rays.

These collisions are thought to provide the dominant source of hot gas that is seen by Chandra. When the outburst dies down the winds return to normal and the X-rays fade. The video can also be viewed on smartphones using the YouTube app. Moving the phone around reveals a different portion of the movie, mimicking the effect in the VR goggles. Finally, most browsers on a computer also allow degree videos to be shown on YouTube.

To look around, either click and drag the video, or click the direction pad in the corner. This one isn't as calming as the ones on Earth. In a galaxy hosting a structure nicknamed the "Teacup," a galactic storm is raging.

As matter in the central regions of the galaxy is pulled toward the black hole, it is energized by the strong gravity and magnetic fields near the black hole. The infalling material produces more radiation than all the stars in the host galaxy. This kind of actively growing black hole is known as a quasar. Since then, professional astronomers using space-based telescopes have gathered clues about the history of this galaxy with an eye toward forecasting how stormy it will be in the future.

This handle-shaped feature, which is located about 30, light-years from the supermassive black hole, was likely formed by one or more eruptions powered by the black hole. Radio emission — shown in a separate composite image with the optical data — also outlines this bubble, and a bubble about the same size on the other side of the black hole. The amount of radiation required to ionize the atoms was compared with that inferred from optical observations of the quasar.

This comparison suggested that the quasar's radiation production had diminished by a factor of somewhere between 50 and over the last 40, to , years. This inferred sharp decline led researchers to conclude that the quasar in the Teacup was fading or dying.

The X-ray spectra that is, the amount of X-rays over a range of energies show that the quasar is heavily obscured by gas. This implies that the quasar is producing much more ionizing radiation than indicated by the estimates based on the optical data alone, and that rumors of the quasar's death may have been exaggerated.

Instead the quasar has dimmed by only a factor of 25 or less over the past , years. Such a wind, which was driven by radiation from the quasar, may have created the bubbles found in the Teacup. The energy of the jets dominates the power output of these black holes, rather than radiation. Surprisingly, the radiation-driven Teacup quasar follows this pattern.

This suggests radiation-dominated quasar systems and their jet-dominated cousins can have similar effects on their galactic surroundings. Keel et al. Figure Animation of a quasar — nicknamed the Teacup because of its shape — is causing a storm in galaxy about 1. Astronomers cannot account for about a third of the normal matter — that is, hydrogen, helium, and other elements — that were created in the first billion years or so after the Big Bang.

They are invisible to optical light telescopes, but some of the warm gas in filaments has been detected in ultraviolet light. The main part of this graphic is from the Millennium simulation, which uses supercomputers to formulate how the key components of the Universe, including the WHIM, would have evolved over cosmic time. The inset in this graphic represents some of the X-ray data collected by Chandra from a distant, rapidly-growing supermassive black hole known as a quasar.

With this technique, researchers identified 17 possible filaments lying between the quasar and Earth, and obtained their distances. But by adding them together, they turned a 5. This revealed an absorption line from oxygen expected to be present in a gas with a temperature of about one million Kelvin.

A paper describing these results was published in The Astrophysical Journal on February 13, Figure A quick look at where is the Universe hiding its Missing Mass?

Figure The Universe's "missing mass" may have been found, according to a new study using Chandra data. About a third of the "normal" matter ie, hydrogen, helium, and other elements created shortly after the Big Bang is not seen in the present-day Universe. One idea is that this missing mass is today in filaments of warm and hot gas known as the WHIM. Researchers suggest evidence for the WHIM is seen in absorption features in X-rays collected from a quasar billions of light years away image credit: Illustration: Springel et al.

This artist's illustration helps explain how astronomers tracked the effects of dark energy to about one billion years after the Big Bang by determining the distances to quasars, rapidly growing black holes that shine extremely brightly. Figure Dark energy, a proposed force or energy that permeates all space and accelerates the Universe's expansion, may vary over time.

These quasars are observed back to times about a billion years after the Big Bang. Using this method, scientists tracked the effects of dark energy out to about 9 billion years ago.

Two of the most distant quasars studied are shown in Chandra images in the insets. In quasars, a disk of matter around the supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy produces UV light shown in the illustration in blue. Some of the UV photons collide with electrons in a cloud of hot gas shown in yellow above and below the disk, and these collisions can boost the energy of the UV light up to X-ray energies. This interaction causes a correlation between the amounts of observed UV and X-ray radiation.

This correlation depends on the luminosity of the quasar, which is the amount of radiation it produces. Once the luminosity is known, the distance to the quasars can be calculated. This is because the observed amount of radiation from quasars converted into standard candles depend on their distance from Earth in a predictable way.

They then used this information to study the expansion rate of the universe back to very early times, and found evidence that the amount of dark energy is growing with time. They showed that results from their technique match up with those from supernova measurements over the last 9 billion years, giving them confidence that their results are reliable at even earlier times.

The researchers also took great care in how their quasars were selected, to minimize statistical errors and to avoid systematic errors that might depend on the distance from Earth to the object. Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory they have observed a jet that bounced off a wall of gas and then punched a hole in a cloud of energetic particles.

This behavior can tell scientists more about how jets from black holes interact with their surroundings. Chandra data show powerful jets of particles and electromagnetic energy blasting away from a rapidly growing black hole at the center of Cygnus A.

After traveling more than , light years on either side of the black hole, the jets have slowed down via its interaction with multimillion-degree intergalactic gas that envelopes Cygnus A.

This interaction has produced enormous clouds of energetic particles that emits X-rays and radio waves. The jet on the left expanded after ricocheting and created a hole in the surrounding cloud of particles that is between 50, and , light years deep and only 26, light years wide.

As the black hole spins, it can produce a rotating, tightly-wound vertical tower of powerful magnetic fields. This allows the black hole to redirect some of the energy released by gas spiraling toward it, creating an energetic jet traveling at very high speeds away from the black hole. The Cygnus A jet is one of the largest and most powerful ever observed.

The composition of the jet and the types of energy determine how the jet behaves when it ricochets, such as the size of the hole it creates. Theoretical models of the jet and its interactions with surrounding gas are needed to make conclusions about the jet's properties. Figure X-ray and optical composite. A ricocheting jet blasting from a giant black hole has been captured by Chandra. These images of Cygnus A show X-rays from Chandra and an optical view from Hubble of the galaxies and stars in the same field of view.

Johnson et al. The inset contains a close-up view of the hotspots on the left and the hole punched by the rebounding jet, which surrounds hotspot E.

The image in the inset combines X-rays from all three energy ranges to give the greatest sensitivity to show fine structures such as the hole. A similar rebounding of the jet likely occurred between hotspots A and B but the hole is not visible because the path is not along the Earth's line of sight. Figure Black holes are notorious for pulling things toward them. But in some cases, black holes can act as powerful engines to blast material away.

One of those black holes is found in Cygnus A, a large galaxy embedded within in a cluster of galaxies. Cygnus A's black hole is blasting a jet — a tightly-wound column of material — away from it at extremely high speeds. Astronomers found that his jet ricocheted off a wall of hot gas, then punched a hole in a cloud of energetic particles, leaving behind a gigantic hole video credit: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Published on Jan 9, The team initiated a set of maneuvers to change the pointing and orientation of the spacecraft to confirm that the gyroscopes were behaving as expected.

During the coming week, scientists will collect spacecraft data to fine-tune the performance for the new gyroscope configuration.

As a final step, the team will uplink a software patch to apply any necessary adjustments to the on-board computer. The safe mode was caused by a glitch in one of Chandra's gyroscopes resulting in a 3-second period of bad data that in turn led the on-board computer to calculate an incorrect value for the spacecraft momentum.

The erroneous momentum indication then triggered the safe mode. Now, a year later, researchers are announcing the existence of a cosmic relative to that historic event. The latest study concludes that these two separate objects may, in fact, be related. The jet produced a short, intense burst of gamma rays known as a short GRB , a high-energy flash that can last only seconds. GW proved that these events may also create ripples in space-time itself called gravitational waves. Both are bright elliptical galaxies with a population of stars a few billion years old and displaying no evidence for new stars forming.

Figure A distant cosmic relative to the first source that astronomers detected in both gravitational waves and light may have been discovered, as reported in our latest press release.

Troja et al. The discovery suggests that events like GW and GRB B could represent a whole new class of erupting objects that turn on and off in X-rays and might actually be relatively common.

One is their location. Without detections at longer wavelengths like X-rays or optical light, GRB positions are not accurate enough to determine what galaxy they are located in. However, follow-up observations with Chandra, with its sharp X-ray resolution, detected the true counterpart away from the center of the host galaxy.

This can be seen in the Chandra images. Not only has the source dimmed dramatically, it is clearly outside the center of the galaxy, which appears as the constant brighter source to the upper right. Analysis of available data indicates the transition to safe mode was nominal, i. All systems functioned as expected and the scientific instruments are safe.

The cause of the Safe Mode transition is currently under investigation, and we will post more information when it becomes available. In , NASA extended its lifetime to 10 years. It is now well into its extended mission and it is expected to continue carrying out forefront science for many years to come.

Core functions of the CXC include system engineering, ground system development and maintenance, mission operations, science and operations planning, science research and dissemination, and outreach support.

The results suggest some red nugget galaxies may have used some of the untapped stellar fuel to grow their central supermassive black holes to unusually massive proportions. While most red nuggets merged with other galaxies over billions of years, a small number remained solitary.

These relatively pristine red nuggets allow astronomers to study how the galaxies — and the supermassive black hole at their centers — act over billions of years of isolation. The Chandra data, colored red, of Mrk is shown in the inset. These two galaxies are located only million and million light years from Earth, respectively, rather than billions of light years for the first known red nuggets, allowing for a more detailed look.

The gas in the galaxy is heated to such high temperatures that it emits brightly in X-ray light, which Chandra detects. This hot gas contains the imprint of activity generated by the supermassive black holes in each of the two galaxies. Figure An artist's illustration main panel shows how material falling towards black holes can be redirected outward at high speeds due to intense gravitational and magnetic fields. These high-speed jets can tamp down the formation of stars.

Werner et al. A team of researchers looked at 24 stars similar to the Sun, each at least one billion years old, and how their X-ray brightness changed over time. Figure This artist's illustration depicts one of these comparatively calm, older Sun-like stars with a planet in orbit around it. The large dark area is a "coronal hole", a phenomenon associated with low levels of magnetic activity.

Booth, et al. In the new study the X-ray data from Chandra and XMM-Newton revealed that stars like the Sun and their less massive cousins calm down surprisingly quickly after a turbulent youth. These new age estimates were used for most of the 24 stars studied here. It shows a side of the cosmos that is invisible to the human eye. After more than a decade in service, the observatory has helped scientists glimpse the universe in action. It has watched galaxies collide, observed a black hole with cosmic hurricane winds , and glimpsed a supernova turning itself inside out after an explosion.

Its pictures are frequently used by NASA in press releases. One of Chandra's more notable images is of what appears to be a cosmic "hand" reaching for a bright nebula, although the scientific explanation is quite different. X-ray astronomy is especially challenging because you need to leave the Earth's atmosphere behind to observe the rays. The first X-ray observations were fleeting, taking place in minutes-long sounding rocket flights, or perhaps for a few hours in a stratospheric balloon.

In , Italian-American astronomer Riccardo Giacconi and his team sent a rocket with an X-ray detector aloft, and discovered the first source of stellar X-rays. Giacconi was naturally eager to do more research. It remained in orbit for more than two years and discovered the first signs of a black hole. Another of his team's ideas — the Einstein Observatory — flew from to This was the first X-ray telescope that could take pictures. Giacconi, now an established authority in X-ray astronomy, teamed up with the Smithsonian's Harvey Tananbaum to propose a more powerful observatory.

Dubbed the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, its goal was to take "high-resolution images and spectra of X-ray sources," according to Harvard University. The telescope was first proposed in Work proceeded in the s, and the telescope was reconfigured in by reducing mirrors and instruments to save money and to make it suitable to launch by shuttle.

Shortly before launch, the telescope was renamed "Chandra" after Nobel laureate and astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Chandra launched July 23, , from the payload bay of space shuttle Columbia , the largest satellite the shuttle ever launched.

What we do Chandra carries four very sensitive mirrors nested inside each other. What we are excited about Chandra has imaged the spectacular, glowing remains of exploded stars, and taken spectra showing the dispersal of elements.

Chandra Mission Podcasts. A Quick Look at 3D Visualizations. Learn About Chandra. Go to the Learn About Chandra Portal for the most recent and popular content about Chandra and its mission. Discover Chandra. Chandra Mission Overview Chandra is designed to observe X-rays from high-energy regions of the Universe.