Chandra Release - July 12, 2017

Visual Description: W51

The X-ray and infrared image of the giant molecular cloud W51 displays a vibrant celestial scene. At the center of the image, there is a bright clump of stars surrounded by nebulous material in shades of royal blue, salmon, and white. The nebula has an intricate, slightly swirling pattern that resembles a bunch of cat prints jumbled together. Surrounding the central stars and nebula, there are numerous stars scattered throughout the image. This composite image of W51 shows the high-energy output from this stellar nursery, where X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are colored blue. In about 20 hours of Chandra exposure time, over 600 young stars were detected as point-like X-ray sources, and diffuse X-ray emission from interstellar gas with a temperature of a million degrees or more was also observed. Infrared light observed with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope appears orange and yellow-green and shows cool gas and stars surrounded by disks of cool material.