Description: This new Chandra image is, in fact, 22 separate pointings of the telescope that have been stitched together to look at the famous Carina Nebula like never before. In this image, low, medium, and high-energy X-rays are colored red, green, and blue respectively. Chandra detected over 14,000 stars in this region, revealed a diffuse X-ray glow, and provided strong evidence that massive stars have already self-destructed in this nearby supernova factory. The Carina Nebula is one of the best places in the Milky Way to study how young and massive stars live and die.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: 2011

Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/carina/

Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory