Chandra Release - June 11, 2012

Visual Description: NGC 4342 and NGC 4291

 Two side-by-side images of galaxies show NGC 4342 and NGC 4291 in X-ray and infrared light. In these composite images, X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are colored blue, while infrared data from the 2MASS project are seen in red. NGC 4342 on the left shows an irregular shaped medium blue blob with tiny bright blue sources and a few red dots.  The right side, NGC 4291, shows a much smaller central blob with a mixture of red and blue spots. These galaxies host black holes at their cores with unusually large masses compared to the mass contained in the central bulge of stars.