An overview of the Chandra mission and goals, Chandra's namesake, top 10 facts.
Classroom activities, printable materials, interactive games & more.
Overview of X-ray Astronomy and X-ray sources: black holes to galaxy clusters.
All Chandra images released to the public listed by date & by category
Current Chandra press releases, status reports, interviews & biographies.
A collection of multimedia, illustrations & animations, a glossary, FAQ & more.
A collection of illustrations, animations and video.
Chandra discoveries in an audio/video format.
Q&A: General Astronomy and Space Science

Q:
I still don't understand the fact that all that photos show something expanding in a "circular/planar" situation and not in a "spherical/3D" configuration. Could that be that the circular expansion is a concentration of a spherical explosion seeing sideways--a mere optical effect?

A:
Yes, many of the 2D "rings" are actually 3D expansions that appear as rings because of a phenomenon known as "limb brightening". If the expanding material is in a 3D shell, the telescope will look through more material on the edges of the shell than the center, causing it to appear as a bright ring.

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