Chandra Release - June 9, 2010

Visual Description: CH Cyg

The image features images of the binary star system CH Cyg, which consists of two stars orbiting around each other. The main panel contains a wide field optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey of a bright red giant star and a tiny box at its core set amongst a sea of smaller pale yellow, blue and white stars. The inset is a composite image with Chandra X-ray data in red, optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in green, and radio data from the Very Large Array (VLA) in blue. CH Cyg is a binary star system containing a white dwarf that feeds from the wind of a red giant star.  This close-up view of the binary star system can be compared to a thin, multicolored glow worm crawling towards the upper left of the inset. The inset shows a recent powerful jet in CH Cyg, caught in action. The material in the jet is moving with a speed of over three million miles per hour and is powered by material spinning in a disk around the white dwarf. The detailed structure of the X-ray jet is seen for the first time in this system. The slightly curved appearance of the jet, shown in the optical by a green arc in the lower right part of the inset, reveals evidence that the direction of the jet rotates. This precession may be caused by wobbling of the accretion disk, in a manner similar to a spinning top. Clumps in the outer jet, seen in X-rays, optical and radio data, provide evidence for powerful mass ejections by the jet in the past, and for interactions with shells of gas formed by the red giant.