Description: This composite image of Arp 147 shows the pair of interacting galaxies in X-ray light from Chandra (pink) and optical data from Hubble (red, green, blue). Arp 147 contains the remnant of a spiral galaxy (right) that collided with the elliptical galaxy on the left that triggered an expanding wave of star formation. Young massive stars race through their evolution in a few million years or less and explode as supernovas, leaving behind neutron stars and black holes. Some of these black holes are seen as X-ray sources around the ring of the spiral.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: 2011

Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/arp147/

Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory