Chandra Release - September 3, 2003

Visual Description: NGC 4438 and NGC 4435

This is a Chandra X-ray Observatory  image of the galaxies NGC 4438 and NGC 4435   The dominant colors in the image are orange, black and white, with some tiny green and yellow dots scattered across the screen. The image captures the galaxy's X-ray emissions, which are not visible to the naked eye but can be observed through specialized telescopes like Chandra. The structure of the galaxy appears as a series of textured clumps, with a central bright spot at the center. This Chandra image shows multimillion degree gas in the two galaxies that are located in the Virgo galaxy cluster.  The two galaxies are now more than 100,000 light years apart. In NGC 4438, the larger galaxy in the lower part of the image, filaments of hot gas have been pulled to the right of the galaxy. The hot gas in the smaller galaxy, NGC 4435 (shown in the upper right as a much smaller spot), is concentrated around its central region.