Chandra Images Seething Cauldron of Starburst Galaxy

Chandra_214_1024

chandra_214 January 14th, 2000

Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/PSU/CMU

M82, at a distance of 11 million light years from Earth, is the nearest starburst galaxy. Massive stars are forming and expiring in M82 at a rate ten times higher than in our galaxy. The bright spots in the center are supernova remnants and X-ray binaries. These are some of the brightest such objects known. The luminosity of the X-ray binaries suggests that most contain a black hole. The diffuse X-ray light in the image extends over several thousand light years, and is caused by multimillion degree gas flowing out of M82. A close encounter with a large galaxy, M81, in the last 100 million years is thought to be the cause of the starburst activity.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0094/

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

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

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
M82

Distance

Universescale2
12,000,000 light years
Chandra_214_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 9h 55m 51.3s
DEC = 69° 40’ 35.9”
Orientation
North is 0.3° CCW
Field of View
4.0 x 4.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Ursa Major

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Chandra (ACIS) X-ray (X-ray) 826.7 pm
Spectrum_xray1
Orange
Chandra_214_1280
×
ID
214
Subject Category
Subject Name
M82
Credits
NASA/CXC/SAO/PSU/CMU
Release Date
2000-01-14
Lightyears
12,000,000
Redshift
12,000,000
Reference Url
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0094/
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
1999-09-20
Integration Time
46800
Dataset ID
361
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
148.9637058, 69.6766381
Reference Dimension
2250.0, 2250.0
Reference Pixel
1126.0, 1126.0
Scale
2.95374e-05, 2.9537418e-05
Rotation
0.34
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
0094_xray.tif
Metadata Date
2010-12-13
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×
Universescalefull
12,000,000 light years

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