Chandra X-Ray Observatory

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The images of Trumpler 3 and NGC 2353 are open clusters that contains hundreds of young stars that are gravitationally bound together because they formed from the same gas cloud. In this composite image of the clusters, X-rays from Chandra (purple) have been combined with an optical image from the PanSTARRS telescope in Hawaii (red, green, and blue). The stars look like fuzzy dots of different sizes dotting the darkness of space.

April 23, 2026

These images, released on April 14, 2026, show two open star clusters, Trumpler 3 (left) and NGC 2353…

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NASA’s IXPE observed the outer rim of the supernova remnant highlighted in purple in the inset. Data from IXPE is combined with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. The yellow represents low-energy X-rays, while blue shows high-energy X-rays detected by Chandra and XMM-Newton. The starfield in the image comes from the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOILab).

March 25, 2026

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, helping…

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NASA Discovers Crash of Extreme Stars in Unexpected Site

March 11, 2026

A fleet of NASA missions has likely uncovered a collision between two ultradense stars in a tiny galaxy…

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February 24, 2026

For the first time, a much younger version of the Sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in…

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This image contains lower-, medium-, and higher-energy X-rays in red, green, and blue respectively.

January 24, 2026

Like a recording artist who has had a long career, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has a “back catalog” of cosmic…

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Supernova Remnant Video From NASA’s Chandra Is Decades in Making

January 7, 2026

A new video shows the evolution of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured…

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$This release features a composite image of a galaxy cluster first discovered on New Year's Eve day, 2020. The cluster appears here as a large collection of brilliant white lights, each a distinct galaxy. A neon purple cloud stretches across the cluster's crowded core. Many of the hundred-plus galaxies in the cluster are in two clumps of galaxies towards the top and bottom of center. Some are encircled by a faint glowing haze, while a few foreground stars gleam with diffraction spikes. Some of the smaller galaxies are tinted blue, orange, or red, and some appear more oblong than round, suggesting spiral shapes viewed edge-on. The neon purple cloud sits at the heart of the image, surrounding the most densely-packed part of the cluster. This cloud, which spreads vertically across the cluster, is multimillion-degree gas observed by Chandra. The two clumps of observable galaxies, and the spread of superheated gas, reveal that the Champagne Cluster is in fact two clusters in the process of colliding. With the two clusters of sparkling light clinking together, and the auspicious discovery date, astronomers have dubbed the merged cosmic structure "The Champagne Cluster".$

December 30, 2025

Celebrate the New Year with the “Champagne Cluster,” a galaxy cluster seen in this new image from NASA’s…

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Chandra & IXPE composite image of the Perseus Cluster.

December 17, 2025

Written by Michael Allen An international team of astronomers using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) has identified…

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NASA’s Chandra Finds Small Galaxies May Buck the Black Hole Trend

December 12, 2025

Most smaller galaxies may not have supermassive black holes in their centers, according to a recent study using…

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Webb near-infrared data combined with Chandra X-ray data of the Bullet Cluster show many overlapping objects, including foreground stars, galaxies in galaxy clusters, and distorted background galaxies behind the galaxy clusters. The objects are all at various distances set against the black background of space. Most galaxies appear as tiny fuzzy ovals in white, orange, or red. A slightly larger, very bright, light blue spiral galaxy is at center. To its immediate left and right are two large bright pink splotches representing X-rays. The right pink area has a rounded nose facing right, where it is darker pink, and fades to the left as a triangular shape. This is referred to as the Bullet. To the far left and far right, next to the pink regions, are two blue regions representing dark matter mass. The left blue region is a large, long oval at an angle. The blue region at right is a far smaller oval.

November 15, 2025

This image released on June 30, 2025, combines data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra…

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Scientists combine the power of 3 telescopes to capture a stunning image of Westerlund 1

September 30, 2025

Pictured are JWST, Hubble, Chandra, and Swift space telescopes (Image source: NASA; edited) Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray…

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An artist's concept of a supermassive black hole, a surrounding disk of material falling towards the black hole and a jet containing particles moving away at close to the speed of light. This black hole represents a recently-discovered quasar powered by a black hole. New Chandra observations indicate that the black hole is growing at a rate that exceeds the usual limit for black holes, called the Eddington Limit. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/M. Weiss

September 19, 2025

A black hole is growing at one of the fastest rates ever recorded, according to a team of…

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Mapping Dark Matter – NASA

Scientists combine the power of 3 telescopes to capture a stunning image of Westerlund 1

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