Happy 25th Anniversary of Chandra! NASA Celebrates with 25 Breathtaking Images from its Flagship X-ray Observatory

It’s truly the summer of Space Day.

Following the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing and the launch of the internet at Space.com, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, turns 25 today. To celebrate the observatory’s achievement, NASA has released 25 stunning, never-before-seen photos of iconic celestial objects, including the Crab Nebula, Pillars of Creation, and Cassiopeia A. The photos take us on a breathtaking journey through the cosmos through Chandra’s eyes.

Chandra Released in 1999 Space.com Launches — aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Circling in an egg-shaped orbit above Earth’s atmosphere, more than a third of the way to the Moon, the observatory has led to numerous discoveries by recording X-ray radiation emitted by long-dead stars, supermassive black holes, and clusters of galaxies.

“For a quarter century, Chandra has made one amazing discovery after another,” said Pat Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts. statement“Astronomers have used Chandra to explore mysteries that were unknown when the telescope was built, including exoplanets and dark energy.”

Related: The Chandra X-ray spacecraft is about to shut down, posing a major threat to astronomy.

Chandra is the third flagship mission in NASA’s Large Observatory constellation, following infrared. Spitzer Space TelescopeRetired in 2020 Hubble Space Telescopestill working, but Showing signs of agingAstronomers around the world continue to access the observatory’s data to elucidate the structure and evolution of various objects in the universe. The observatory’s science has led to more than 700 doctoral dissertations, supported the research careers of thousands of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students, and generated approximately 10,000 peer-reviewed and pre-peer-reviewed papers, making it one of NASA’s most scientifically productive missions in astrophysics. Demands for the telescope’s time have been extremely high throughout the mission, with one researcher saying that typically only 20 percent of the time requested is approved. NASA statement.

“The Chandra images and data have inspire people of all ages to think about what they might find by looking up into space,” Ellen Stofan, assistant secretary for scientific research at the Smithsonian Institution, said in a separate interview. statement“Chandra continues to provide our ‘X-ray eyes’ to help us better understand our place in the universe.”

The latest image is a montage of 25,000 observations made by Chandra over the past 25 years, with some aspects enhanced by contributions from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, which provide a detailed view of the galaxy’s innermost regions. Dusty Centerthe young star Pillars of Creation, Very hot gas NGC 7469 spiral galaxy near a growing supermassive black hole, and many more.

For many astronomers around the world, the anniversary was bittersweet. NASA Budget Plan Predictions for the next 5 years Canceling too early Chandra has been canceled due to financial constraints, despite still having a decade of life left and stable mission costs projected for decades to come. The decision will free up a large portion of the $68 million spent on Chandra each year and result in the layoffs of astronomers whose jobs depend on scientific research and maintenance. The end of Chandra leaves the United States, and perhaps the world, without a telescope that mirrors or exceeds the capabilities of the observatory.Save Chandra“The Coalition continues to call on NASA to reconsider its decision.”

“Chandra is a living legacy that we hope will continue to contribute to space exploration for years to come,” said Lisa Curie, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts. Smithsonian Institution statement.

Cassiopeia A

The first optical image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a supernova remnant located about 11,000 light-years from Earth, was taken by the Chandra Observatory shortly after it was installed in 1999. NASA reports that the observatory observed the glowing ball of matter and energy for more than 2 million seconds, or 23 days. news release.

Early observations quickly revealed that powerful X-rays were emitting from Cas A’s center, giving astronomers their first glimpse at the remnant, more specifically a compact neutron star. In the years that followed, astronomers used the X-rays emitted by the remnant to map the distribution of elements in the extremely dense dead star. Their results showed that the original star may have turned inside-out during the explosion, revealing an important step in how massive stars behave as they die.

Recently, data from the observatory Solving the mystery A strange, Grinch-like bundle of green light was spotted snaking around Cass A.

Bat shadow (snake cloud)

This image shows the Ophiuchus Nebula, a star-forming region about 1,300 light-years from Earth. A huge bat-shaped shadow falls on the cloud further away, but is not visible in the image. The shadow was cast by the young star’s bulging planet-forming disk. The shadow is huge, spanning 200 times the diameter of our entire solar system.

In 2020, astronomers observed the shadow “flapping like a bird’s wing” over a 400-day period, leading them to speculate that this could be a planet tugging on the disk and distorting it.

Orion Nebula

In this image, newly formed stars shine white with neon pink hues through the hazy clouds of the Orion Nebula, a large cloud within our galaxy where stars are born. At 1,500 light-years away, the nebula is one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth and can be seen with the naked eye under dark skies.

WR124

WR stands for “Wolf-Rayet” star, a rare type of massive star that loses mass rapidly during a short-lived phase before exploding as a supernova.

WR 124 is about 30 times more massive than the Sun and lies 15,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The reds and purples seen in the latest images are dense wind clouds around the star that may be preventing Chandra from finding a companion neutron star in the region. The winds resemble the inside of a delicate flower with blooming petals, and the dozens of white stars scattered around the central star can be likened to dew on the petals.

Astronomers estimate that the star has ejected the equivalent of 10 suns worth of material, which has been blasted away from the star and is cooling farther into space. The debris that survives the star’s death will add to the mass of cosmic dust and provide future generations of star- and planet-forming material.

Crab Nebula

of Crab Nebulais one of the sky’s brightest supernova remnants, glowing like a “neon purple mushroom” at the center of a dense web of filaments that erupted as the massive star died. The new Chandra image exquisitely recreates the ring around the white pulsar, the bright remnants of the bygone star, and the thin jets that shoot from it into the depths of space.

The remaining 20 images released to commemorate Chandra’s 25th anniversary are: Observatory website.