Chandra Release - May 7, 2001

Visual Description: XTE J1118+480

This Chandra X-ray Observatory image features a black hole called XTE J1118+480.  The image displays various colors, including blue, green, and purple, which are used to depict the intensity of the X-ray radiation emitted by the black hole.  The image shows a structure in the shape of an  X  or cross. It is a grating spectrum of a black hole, which is similar to the colorful spectrum of sunlight produced by a prism. The X-rays shown here are recorded in the bright stripe that runs rightward and leftward from the center of the image. These X-rays are sorted precisely according to their energy with the highest-energy X-rays near the center of the image and the lower-energy X-rays farther out. A bright spot at the center is due to a fraction of the X-ray radiation that is not deflected by the instrument. Spokes that intersect the central spot and the faint diagonal rays that flank the spectrum itself are artifacts.