James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

NGC 1365 for Chandra's 25th Anniversary (Chandra/Webb composite)

This spiral galaxy contains a supermassive black hole and stars rapidly forming in its center. Chandra sees X-rays from gas near the massive black hole and from smaller black holes or neutron stars pulling material from companion stars. X-rays from Chandra (blue); optical from VLT (yellow and blue); infrared from Webb (red, green, and blue) Read more about Chandra's 25th anniversary: chandra.cfa.harvard.edu/photo/2024/25th/ Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: ESO/VLT; Infrared: NASA/ESA/STScI/JWST/PHANGS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare, J. Major Visual Description: This composite image features a close look at the supermassive black hole at the heart of the spiral galaxy known as NGC 1365. The brilliant black hole glows white at the center of the image, its outer edges tinted bright blue. From this core, two thick ropey red arms spiral out. Continuing their spiral curves, the arms extend well beyond the edges of the frame. Dotting the image are a series of white spots with neon blue outer edges. These are stars paired with smaller black holes or neutron stars, observed by Chandra. Image & Description by NASA