Astronomers using X-ray, optical and infrared telescopes have spotted three galaxies – hosting three supermassive black holes – in the process of merging.
Stars and long streams of gas are torn away from a galaxy as it plows through the heart of a cluster near the centre of the Great Attractor in a phenomenon known as ram pressure stripping.
A 360-dergree visualization of the Milky Way’s core from the perspective of its central supermassive black hole shows the chaotic motion of nearby stars and gas clouds.
A voracious quasar at the heart of a galaxy 1.1 billion light years away is blowing huge bubbles in space, giving the host galaxy the shape of a teacup.
The remains of a destroyed star in a disc of shredded debris around a supermassive black hole showed the hole was spinning at more than half the speed of light.
Observations of a fast-growing white dwarf suggest an alternative explanation for what triggers X-ray outbursts as gas from a companion star falls onto the dwarf
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory entered protective safe mode 10 October, the second of NASA’s “Great Observatories” to be sidelined in one week by a technical issue. Engineers are studying telemetry to pinpoint the problem.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captures a detailed view showing a small group of galaxies being pulled into a massive galactic cluster trailing a long stream of hot gas in their wake.
Observations of a ring galaxy, the result of a cosmic collision with another galaxy more than 300 million years ago, reveal a necklace-like ring of ultraluminous X-ray sources powered by black holes, neutron stars or both.
Astronomers struggling to understand why an unusual stars periodically fades and brightens have collected X-ray observations indicating it may be due to the catastrophic collision of two infant planets.