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THE FINAL FRONTIER — Last week, NASA released an image of a supermassive black hole that has prevented the formation of trillions of stars.
Extreme power of black hole revealed
The black hole, located about 3.9 billion light years from Earth, has created structures in its surrounding hot gas. In the composite X-ray image captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, hot gas glows in purple and galaxies are illuminated in yellow.
The massive cluster mass shining brightly is estimated to be about a quadrillion times larger than the sun.
“The large amount of hot gas near the center of the cluster presents a puzzle,” NASA wrote of the black hole. “Hot gas glowing with X-rays should cool, and the dense gas in the center of the cluster should cool the fastest. The pressure in this cool central gas is then expected to drop, causing gas further out to sink in towards the galaxy, forming trillions of stars along the way.”
NASA said shock fronts provide a heat source that prevents gas from cooling and forming new stars.
Exploring the third fimension of Cassiopeia A
This is the 300-year-old remnant of a stellar explosion that blew a massive star apart.
You can also view it in 3D online with images from the Chandra observatory.
Elephant Trunk Nebula
This stunning image of IC 1396A shows radiation and winds from young stars working together to create new stars. Or at least, that’s the theory behind this image.
Glowing gas in the Milky Way
Located in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way, this glowing gas presents “a tableau of the drama of the evolution of massive stars.” The portions in blue are diffuse X-ray data that are likely winds from young, massive stars.
A surprisingly bright superbubble
Viewers can see stars forming in this star cluster. In this image, hot winds are shown in blue, dust and cooler gas glows red and ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars shows in yellow.
