1. Animation of Hidden Baby Black Hole

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This animation shows an artist's impression of a distant galaxy and its hidden black hole found in an epoch when the Universe was less than one billion years old. The galaxy contains regions of active star formation (blue) and large amounts of gas and dust (red). The view zooms into the galaxy, and a glowing disk of hot gas falling onto massive central object is seen. At the center of the disk is a supermassive black hole. Many types of radiation emitted from the disk are blocked by the veil of dust and gas, but very energetic X-rays are able to escape. Scientists found many of these black holes in the early Universe using the new Chandra Deep Field South.
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(NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Chandra Deep Field South

2. Multi-wavelength Views of the Chandra Deep Field South

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This sequence of images begins with a large optical image of the southern sky. The view zooms into the 4-million-second exposure of the Chandra Deep Field South, and then an optical and infrared image from the Hubble Space Telescope is overlaid. The Chandra sources are blue in this composite image. After further zooming in, yellow circles appear to mark the positions of very distant galaxies that existed when the Universe was less than about 950 million years old. The two small Chandra sources on the right show that all of the low and high energy X-rays that have been added up at the positions of these galaxies. This provides evidence that growing black holes have been detected in 30% to 100% of the distant galaxies.
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(X-ray: NASA/CXC/U. Hawaii/E. Treister et al; Infrared: NASA/STScI/UC Santa Cruz/G. Illingworth et al; Optical: Wide-field: Akira Fujii; Close-up: NASA/STScI/S. Beckwith et al)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Chandra Deep Field South

3. The Solar System in a Whole New Light

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One Star, eight planets, and a myriad of moons, comets, and asteroids. This is the Earth's local neighborhood known as the Solar System. Despite studying this system for centuries, astronomers still yearn to know much more. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is providing new insight and uncovering new mysteries about objects of all sizes and across distances throughout our Solary System.
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(Animations: NASA, ESA/Hubble/M. Kornmesser & L.L. Christensen, NASA/GFSC/G. Shirah, J. Tucciarone. Production: NASA/CXC/K.K. Arcand & A. Hobart with thanks to SPL. Music: Move Two)

4. Zoom in to Cygnus X-1

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Cygnus X-1 is located near large active regions of star formation in the Milky Way. Cygnus X-1 is a black hole about 15 times the mass of the Sun in orbit with a massive blue companion star. Astronomers used several telescopes including Chandra to study Cygnus X-1. The combined data have revealed the spin, mass, and distance of this black hole more precisely than ever before.
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(NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Cygnus X-1

5. Animation of Black Hole Formation in SN 1979C

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This animation shows how a black hole may have formed in SN 1979C. The collapse of a massive star is shown, after it has exhausted its fuel. A flash of light from a shock breaking through the surface of the star is then shown, followed by a powerful supernova explosion. The view then zooms into the center of the explosion. Red, slow-moving material in a disk is shown falling onto the white neutron star that formed when the star collapsed. The rate of infall onto the neutron star increases until the star collapses into a black hole. Matter should continue to fall into the black hole and generate bright X-ray emission for many years.
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(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: SN 1979C

6. Animation of Merger Trigger for Supernova

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This animation shows the main way that new Chandra results indicate Type Ia supernova are triggered in elliptical galaxies. Two white dwarf stars orbit each other and lose energy via gravitational radiation, eventually resulting in a merger between the two stars. Because the total mass of this merger exceeds the weight limit for a white dwarf, the merged star is unstable and explodes as a Type Ia supernova.
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(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: M31

7. 3-D Fly-Through of Cassiopeia A

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This visualization shows a fly-through of Cas A based on the 3-D representation constructed from Chandra and Spitzer data. It begins with an artists rendition of the neutron star previously detected by Chandra. Next, new features unseen in traditional 2-D data sets are visible, including details of how the parent star exploded. The green region is mostly iron observed in X-rays; the yellow region is mostly argon and silicon seen in X-rays, optical and infared; the red region is cooler debris seen in the infared and the blue region is the outer blast wave, most prominent in X-rays.
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(Visualization: NASA/CXC/D.Berry; Model: NASA/CXC/MIT/T.Delaney et al.)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Cassiopeia A

8. Animation of a Blob

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This animation of a blob begins with a close-up view of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy. Material falls into the black hole via a hot, rotating disk, and powers an outflow that pushes out into the galaxy. The view pulls back to show the galaxy hosting the black hole, as the outflow travels away from the galaxy and heats up surrounding gas. Several other outflows powered by the black hole are seen. The view pulls back even further to show the full extent of the gas in the blob containing the galaxy.
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(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Lyman Alpha Blobs

9. Animation of a Supernova Explosion

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This artist's animation shows the basics of a supernova explosion like the one that created Cas A. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it collapses onto itself and its remains are then expelled into the surrounding space. This expanding debris field is very hot and thus glows brightly in X-rays, which are detected by telescopes like Chandra. At the end of the animation, the view dissolves into an image of Cas A created from Chandra data.
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(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: Cassiopeia A
• Photo Album: Cassiopeia A

10. Animation of Jet and Wind around GRS 1915+105

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This animation shows how radio jets may be suppressed in the micro- quasar GRS 1915. Material is being pulled from a red companion star into a black hole via a blue, rapidly rotating disk. The animation begins with a jet blowing material away from the black hole. Later, when the disk is heated by powerful radiation from close to the black hole, a wind is driven off the disk. As the wind strengthens, the jet apparently is shut down because the wind deprives the jet of material that would otherwise have fueled it.
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(NASA/CXC/A.Hobart)

Related Chandra Images:

• Photo Album: GRS 1915+105