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M31:
Closer Look Reveals Andromeda's Black Hole Not As "Cool" As Believed
Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope
images of two recently detected emitting globular star
clusters - so called because of their spherical
shape - were used as a cross-check to determine the
position of X-ray sources near the center of the
Andromeda galaxy to an accuracy ten times greater than
before. The inset shows the three Chandra sources
closest to the supermassive black hole, overlaid with
the intensity contours from the HST image (red). The
location of supermassive black hole is thought to be in
the middle of the peanut-shaped intensity contours, and
very close to the Northern-most of the three Chandra
sources.
These highly accurate positions show that the very
cool X-ray source (blue) previously identified with the
supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy is
actually about 10 light years south of the center. A
second, hotter X-ray source, is found to be at a
position consistent with the position of the
super massive black hole. The globular clusters are
outside the field of view in this image.
| Fast Facts for M31: |
| Credit |
X-ray: (NASA/SAO/CXC/M.Garcia et al.)
Optical: (NASA/GSFC/T.Brown et al.) |
| Scale |
X-ray Image is 1 arcmin on a side. |
| Category |
Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies |
| Coordinates (J2000) |
RA 00h 40m 27s | Dec +40° 40' 12 |
| Constellation |
Andromeda |
| Observation Dates |
October 13, 1999
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| Observation Time |
3 hours |
| Obs. IDs |
303,305,306,307,308,311,312
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| Color Code |
Cool blue dot - the rest is intensity |
| Instrument |
ACIS |
| Also Known As | Andromeda |
| Distance Estimate |
About 2.9 million light years |
| Release Date |
October 12, 2001 |
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