1. Sequence of Black Hole Illustrations
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This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
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(NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)

2. Chandra Images of Elliptical Galaxies
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This set of Chandra images shows hot gas located in the nine different elliptical galaxies studied in this new work. Each of these galaxies shows evidence for cavities in the hot gas that were created by jets from the central black holes.
[Runtime: 0:32]
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(NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: NGC 4696

3. Chandra, Infrared, and Radio Images of NGC 4696
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This sequence of images shows NGC 4696, the elliptical galaxy at the center of the Centaurus galaxy cluster. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole, one of nine black holes studied recently using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. An infrared image, in green, reveals the stars in the elliptical galaxy. Next, the blue radio image shows high-energy jets generated by the black hole. Finally, Chandra's X-ray image in red traces hot gas located around the center of the galaxy. Enormous cavities in this gas were created by jets from the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:16]
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(X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/McMaster Univ./W.Harris; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/G.Taylor)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: NGC 4696

4. Animation of Black Hole in Elliptical Galaxy
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This artist's animation depicts a journey into the center of an elliptical galaxy. After traveling past stars in the outer part of the galaxy, the supermassive black hole located at the bright center of the galaxy becomes visible. This black hole is surrounded by hot gas shown in red and yellow, which acts as fuel for the black hole engine. Power generated by the engine flows away from the black hole via jets of high-energy particles.
[Runtime: 0:25]
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(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: NGC 4696

5. Black Hole Devours a Neutron Star
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Scientists say they have seen tantalizing, first-time evidence of a black hole eating a neutron star-first stretching the neutron star into a crescent, swallowing it, and then gulping up crumbs of the broken star in the minutes and hours that followed.
[Runtime: 0:28]
(NASA/D.Berry)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: GRB 050709

6. Animation of a Black Hole Pulling Matter from Companion Star
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This animation shows the orbit of the binary system GRO J1655-40. Gas is being pulled away from a normal star, shown in blue, and crashes onto a red disk that is spinning around a central black hole. The animation then zooms in to show a closer view of the disk. Some of the gas in the disk spirals inwards and falls onto the black hole, generating light along the way, and some of it is blown away in a wind.
[Runtime: 0:19]
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(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)