Spectacular X-ray Jet Points Toward Cosmic Energy Booster

Chandra_203_1024

chandra_203 June 6th, 2000

Credit: NASA/UMD/A.Wilson et al.

Chandra's image of Pictor A gave scientists their first look at a spectacular X-ray jet. The jet originates near a giant black hole (left) in the central region of the galaxy and streaks toward a brilliant X-ray hot spot (right) 800 thousand light years (8 times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy) away. The hot spot is thought to represent the advancing head of the jet which brightens as it plows into the tenuous gas of intergalactic space.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/pictor/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

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Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Pictor A

Distance Details Distance

Universescale3
470,000,000 light years
Chandra_203_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 19m 38.3s
DEC = -45° 46’ 15.7”
Orientation
North is 0.1° CCW
Field of View
5.0 x 2.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Pictor

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 826.7 pm
DatasetID is the Chandra Observation ID
Spectrum_xray1
Orange
Chandra_203_1280
×
ID
203
Subject Category
Subject Name
Pictor A
Credits
NASA/UMD/A.Wilson et al.
Release Date
2000-06-06
Lightyears
470,000,000
Redshift
0.035
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/pictor/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Chandra
Instrument
ACIS
Color Assignment
Orange
Band
X-ray
Bandpass
X-ray
Central Wavelength
0.8267
Start Time
2000-01-18T00:34:42
Integration Time
25834
Dataset ID
346
Notes
D
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
79.9095725, -45.7710273
Reference Dimension
3000.0, 1582.0
Reference Pixel
1501.0, 792.0
Scale
2.75886e-05, 2.7588599e-05
Rotation
0.10
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
Creator (Curator)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu
Name
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Email
cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
Telephone
617.496.7941
Address
60 Garden St.
City
Cambridge
State/Province
MA
Postal Code
02138
Country
USA
Rights
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Publisher
Chandra X-ray Center
Publisher ID
chandra
Resource ID
pictor_xray.tif
Resource URL
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/pictor/pictor_xray.tif
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2011-02-11
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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Universescalefull
470,000,000 light years

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NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASA’s Science Activation program, which strives to further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages.