Chandra Mission

Chandra Images Images from the Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope

  • Chandra Determines What Makes a Galaxy’s Wind Blow
    on March 29, 2023 at 1:59 pm

    NGC 253 shows the effect of powerful winds being launched in opposite directions from the center of the galaxy. Although it is a spiral like our Milky Way galaxy, NGC 253 is forming stars at a higher rate. These young massive stars and their supernova explosions propel the winds that play an important role in the lifecycle of stars and the galaxy.

  • NASA’s Chandra Discovers Giant Black Holes on Collision Course
    on February 22, 2023 at 2:00 pm

    NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory helped identify two pairs of dwarf galaxies on track to merge.

  • The Enduring Stellar Lifecycle in 30 Doradus
    on January 10, 2023 at 8:39 pm

    The “Tarantula Nebula” (officially known as 30 Doradus) is available in a composite image of Chandra and JWST data for the first time.

  • Chandra Sees Stellar X-rays Exceeding Safety Limits
    on December 15, 2022 at 3:00 pm

    Astronomers have made the most extensive study yet of how magnetically active stars are when they are young. This gives scientists a window into how X-rays from stars like the Sun, but billions of years younger, could partially or completely evaporate the atmospheres of planets orbiting them.

  • Setting the Clock on a Stellar Explosion
    on September 12, 2022 at 2:18 pm

    A new image of SNR 0519-69.0 shows the debris of a star that exploded several hundred years ago in Earth’s timeframe.

  • NASA Telescopes Capture Stellar Delivery Service for Black Hole
    on August 18, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    Astronomers may have witnessed a galaxy’s black hole delivery system in action. A new study using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope outlines how a large black hole may have been delivered to the spiral galaxy NGC 4424 by another, smaller galaxy.

  • Zeta Ophiuchi: A Star With a Complicated Past
    on July 29, 2022 at 2:29 pm

    Zeta Ophiuchi is a star with a complicated past, having likely been ejected from its birthplace by a powerful stellar explosion. A new look by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory helps tell more of the story of this runaway star.

  • Embracing a Rejected Star
    on July 25, 2022 at 1:59 pm

    Zeta Ophiuchi is a star with a complicated past, having likely been ejected from its birthplace by a powerful stellar explosion. A new look by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory helps tell more of the story of this runaway star.

  • Chandra Shows Giant Black Hole Spins Slower Than Its Peers
    on June 30, 2022 at 1:53 pm

    Astronomers have gauged how fast a supermassive black hole is spinning inside a quasar 3.4 billion light years away.

  • NASA’s Chandra Catches Pulsar in X-ray Speed Trap
    on June 15, 2022 at 8:00 pm

    A young pulsar is blazing through the Milky Way at a speed of over a million miles per hour. This stellar speedster, witnessed by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, is one of the fastest objects of its kind ever seen. This result teaches astronomers more about how some of the bigger stars end their lives.