Chandra Release - November 13, 2014

Visual Description: Sagittarius A*

A Chandra X-ray Observatory image around the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole, located in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is shown. The image is dominated by vibrant red and blue hues, with a large amount of celestial objects visible. At the center of the image, there is a bright, lumpy object showing the intense X-ray radiation emanating from the Sgr A* black hole. In the surrounding area, there are a couple smaller lumps layered throughout the image, feathering out to a large almost butterfly shape filling much of the screen. The image appears textured, like dozens of blue and orange glow worms are paused in their wriggling. The image offers an unprecedented view of lobes of hot gas extending for a dozen light years on either side of the black hole. These lobes provide evidence for powerful eruptions occurring several times over the last ten thousand years. The image also contains several mysterious X-ray filaments, some of which may be huge magnetic structures interacting with streams of energetic electrons produced by rapidly spinning neutron stars. Such features are known as pulsar wind nebulas.