Credit: NASA/CXC/INAF/F.Coti Zelati et al

Since its discovery two years ago when it gave off a burst of X-rays, astronomers have been actively monitoring the magnetar, dubbed SGR 1745-2900, with Chandra and XMM-Newton. The main image of the graphic shows the region around the Milky Way's black hole in X-rays from Chandra (red, green, and blue are the low, medium, and high-energy X-rays respectively). The inset contains Chandra's close-up look at the area right around the black hole, showing a combined image obtained between 2005 and 2008 (left) when the magnetar was not detected, during a quiescent period, and an observation in 2013 (right) when it was caught as a bright point source during the X-ray outburst that led to its discovery. A new study uses long-term monitoring observations to reveal that the X-ray output from SGR 1745-2900 is dropping more slowly than for other magnetars, and its surface is hotter than expected.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/sgr1745/

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

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