See composites created using James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory imagery. A pair of galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster are the targets.
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
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TechTranscript
00:00 [ music ]
00:02 Visit Chandra's beautiful universe.
00:05 Chandra Webb Composites
00:08 Four composite images deliver dazzling views
00:13 from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
00:15 and James Webb Space Telescope
00:17 of two galaxies, a nebula, and a star cluster.
00:21 Each image combines Chandra's X-rays,
00:24 a form of high-energy light,
00:26 with infrared data from previously released Webb images.
00:30 Data from the Hubble Space Telescope
00:32 and retired Spitzer Space Telescope,
00:35 plus ESO's XMM-Newton
00:37 and the ESO's New Technology Telescope, is also used.
00:41 While most of these wavelengths of light
00:43 are invisible to the human eye,
00:45 the data have been mapped to colors
00:47 so we can explore these cosmic wonders in details within.
00:51 The data in these images have been released to the public before,
00:54 but this is the first time they have been combined in this way.
00:58 The images include NGC 346,
01:01 a star cluster in a nearby galaxy,
01:04 the small Magellanic Cloud,
01:06 about 200,000 light-years from Earth.
01:09 Webb shows plumes and arcs of gas and dust
01:11 that stars and planets use as source material
01:14 during their formation.
01:16 The purple cloud on the left, seen with Chandra,
01:19 is the remains of a supernova explosion
01:21 from a massive star.
01:23 The Chandra data also reveals young, hot, and massive stars
01:28 that send powerful winds outward from their surfaces.
01:31 NGC 1672 is a spiral galaxy,
01:35 but one that astronomers categorize as a barred spiral.
01:39 In regions close to their centers,
01:41 the arms of barred spiral galaxies
01:43 are mostly in a straight band of stars
01:45 across the center that encloses the core,
01:47 as opposed to other spirals
01:49 that have arms that twist all the way to their core.
01:52 The Chandra data reveals compact objects
01:54 like neutron stars or black holes,
01:56 pulling material from companion stars
01:59 as well as the remnants of exploded stars.
02:02 Messier 16, also known as the Eagle Nebula,
02:05 is a famous region of the sky
02:07 often referred to as the Pillars of Creation.
02:10 The Webb image shows the dark columns of gas and dust
02:14 shrouding the few remaining fledgling stars just being formed.
02:18 The Chandra sources, which look like dots,
02:21 are young stars that give off copious amounts of X-rays.
02:25 Messier 74 is also a spiral galaxy,
02:29 like our Milky Way,
02:31 that we see face-on from our vantage point on Earth.
02:34 It is about 32 million light-years away.
02:37 In the composite, Webb outlines gas and dust in the infrared,
02:41 while Chandra data spotlights high-energy activity
02:44 from stars at X-ray wavelengths.
02:47 Hubble optical data showcases additional stars and dust
02:51 along the dust lanes.
02:53 We look forward to many more new images from Chandra data
02:56 and its companion telescopes,
02:58 both in space and on the ground,
03:00 as this exciting era of astronomy continues.
03:04 [Music]
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