This composite image shows a supernova within the galaxy M100 that may contain the youngest known black hole in our cosmic neighborhood. In this image, Chandra's X-rays are colored gold, while optical data from ESO's Very Large Telescope are shown in yellow-white and blue, and infrared data from Spitzer are red. The location of the supernova, known as SN 1979C, is labeled (roll your mouse over the image above).

Today, Google is marking the 115th anniversary of the discovery of X-rays by William Roentgen, a German physicist. Here at the Chandra blog, we are not sure if this exact date is the most important one, but we do know that he made his discovery some time during 1895. And, hey, we are always in the mood for a little celebration of all things high-energy.

The last time I wrote a blog entry on the Sun was about two months ago. I noted that although the Sun had an outburst in August it was still fairly quiet. It remains fairly quite, although the sunspot numbers have been steadily creeping up for the last few months and there were four weak "C-class" flares last week. The observed rates are still only about two-thirds of the predicted values.

The year 2011 has been proclaimed (by the United Nations and a host of other proclaimers) to be the International Year of Chemistry, a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind.

This past weekend, the Chandra team had a great time at the USA Science & Engineering Festival. From nearly the start of the day on Saturday through the end of Sunday, there was a steady stream of people stopping by. Those who did attend had to deal with street closures from road races, as well the regular DC activity around the National Mall. Everyone was rewarded, however, with some fabulous autumn weather – sunny and dry.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed an unusual galaxy cluster that contains a bright core of relatively cool gas surrounding a quasar called 3C 186. This is the most distant object yet observed, and could provide insight into the triggering of quasars and the growth of galaxy clusters.

In its relatively short 50 year history, the field of X-ray astronomy has shed a whole new light on our view of the universe, and has seen a dizzying rate of technological advancement. Prior to the 1960's, only the Sun was a known source of high energy radiation in X-rays and gamma-rays. These wavelengths of light are absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, so X-ray astronomy depended on advancements in rocketry and space science to be fully explored.

We are live from the USA Science & Engineering Festival this weekend (October 23 and 24, 2010)! It's very cool to be in the heart of Washington, DC for this first national science fair.

If you felt a slight pull in the direction of our nation's capitol recently, it might have to do with a giant event that will culminate in veritable science-apoolza this weekend. This thing is something called the USA Science & Engineering Festival, and we're excited to be part of it here at Chandra.

Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Observations with NASA's Chandra, Swift, and Rossi X-ray observatories, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and ESA's XMM-Newton have revealed that a slowly rotating neutron star with a comparatively very weak surface magnetic field is giving off bursts of X-rays and gamma rays. This discovery may indicate the presence of an internal magnetic field much more intense than the surface magnetic field, with implications for how the most powerful magnets in the cosmos evolve.