Chandra Release - June 4, 2002

Visual Description: NGC 1553

This is an X-ray image of the lenticular galaxy NGC 1553, which is a type of elliptical galaxy  with a disk of old stars. The image features a black background with bright green blobs and yellow-green spots scattered across it. These spots can be likened to glowing fireflies in a dark green sky. At the center of the image, there is a bright, elongated structure that resembles a curved, shimmering ribbon. Chandra's image of the galaxy reveals diffuse hot gas dotted with those point-like sources. The point-like sources black holes and neutron stars in binary star systems where material pulled off a normal star is heated and emits X-radiation as it falls toward its black hole or neutron star companion. A bright central source in NGC 1553 is probably due to a supermassive black hole in the nucleus of the galaxy.