Most Massive Cosmic Collision Photos: Oh, Chandra, You so fine!

April 19, 2009April 19, 2009 P U 2 Comments

Detail of MACSJ0717 Collision of 4 Galaxies from Chandra - Credit:NASA/CXC/SAO

Four galaxies colliding have been photographed by NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and by the Hubble telescope. These are composite images from:

X-rays (Blue, Violet)
Optical (Cyan, Yellow)

This composite image shows the massive galaxy cluster MACSJ0717.5+3745 - Credit:NASA/CXC/SAO

Details about the galaxies, and many more images can be found at the Chandra site at Harvard. Animations there too.

Another MACSJ0717 detail that I've cropped from the composite image - Credit:NASA/CXC/SAO

An excellent and fairly brief explanation of how the pictures are taken, and why they look as they do is found on this page: Chandra Images & False Color.

Ponder and enjoy,

Ken Storch

Articles, News Astrophotography, Chandra, Cosmic, Digital Photography, Hubble

Comments (2) on “Most Massive Cosmic Collision Photos: Oh, Chandra, You so fine!”

lee says:

April 23, 2009 at 07:37

These are great, and so sparkely!!!!

Reply
1. Ken Storch says:
  
  April 24, 2009 at 14:06
  
  So, you want another galaxy for your b’day?
  
  Reply

Comments (2) on “Most Massive Cosmic Collision Photos: Oh, Chandra, You so fine!”

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