Chandra Release - May 14, 2015

Visual Description: SGR 1745-2900

 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 number of objects throughout. 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.  At lower right, an inset contains Chandra's close-up look at the area right around the black hole. This shows a combined image obtained between 2005 and 2008 (left, a smaller orange to white source) when the magnetar was not detected during a quiescent period.  To the right, another inset shows the same field of view from an observation in 2013 when the magnetar appears as a larger brighter orange to the lower left of the existing source. This is when the magnetar, a very powerful magnetized star, was caught as a bright point source during the X-ray outburst that led to its discovery.