Chandra releases ‘red, white, and blue’ universe for US 250th

In celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, NASA has unveiled four cosmic images from its Chandra X-ray Observatory, rendered in red, white and blue, that represent the wonders of the universe the agency explores. The images are accompanied by a trio of new sonifications—a technique that translates astronomical data into sound.

The image set begins with Cassiopeia A in the top panel, where X-rays from Chandra (represented in blue and purple) have been combined with an infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (red and white). Chandra’s X-ray vision reveals the blast wave that tore through the star, as well as elements in the debris field like iron, calcium and oxygen. Webb’s infrared data also show the expanding shell of material from the explosion and cosmic dust throughout the remnant.

In the bottom row, the first image on the left is the nebula NGC 3603, which contains a massive cluster of stars and is located in the Milky Way. This new composite image contains Chandra’s X-ray data (red and white) and shows diffuse emission near the nebula’s center, along with point-like X-ray sources throughout the middle of the image. Optical, infrared and ultraviolet light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (red-orange, green, blue and yellow) reveal stars in the center of the image and dust and gas toward the bottom. The combined layering of the colors makes this nebula and the stars forming within it appear primarily red, white and blue, with X-rays showing the sparkling lights of young stars.

The middle panel of the bottom row is a new look at the galaxy NGC 4736, also known as Messier 94. In this image, X-rays of different wavelengths from Chandra (red, orange and blue) are layered with a visible-light image from astrophotographers using their telescopes on the ground (red, green and blue). Messier 94 is a spiral galaxy with a bright inner ring, called a starburst ring, where new stars are forming, perhaps fueled by gas driven by the unique oval-shaped structure seen here.

The final image in this red, white and blue quartet features ZwCl 0024+1652. This is a distant galaxy cluster in which astronomers have found evidence of dark matter using specially processed data from Hubble (blue). Another image from Hubble reveals the individual galaxies in the cluster (appearing yellow and white). X-ray data from Chandra show the enormous reservoir of superheated gas that pervades this galaxy cluster (red), with much more mass than all the galaxies taken together.

New sonifications of the three images along the bottom row of this mosaic are also available, allowing listeners to experience data through sound.

More information Chandra Observatory