vinayastro.blogspot.com - The Astronomy Blog

What is a black hole?

2012-07-03T11:46:00.000+05:30

A "simple" definition of a black hole would be "A body with escape velocity greater then the speed of light." OK, now let me try to explain this with example.

Theoretically anything with mass can be turned into a black hole. Its all depends upon the Escape Velocity(EV). EV is the speed needed if you want to "escape" from the gravity of a body. For example, escape velocity of earth is 11.2 km/s. If you shoot something(a rocket, cannonball etc) in the sky with less then this speed, it will fall back. But if you shoot it on higher speed then EV, it will be able to go out of the gravitational bounds of the earth.

Escape velocity(source: wikipedia)

Now if we keep "squeezing" the earth(told you, theoretically its possible :)) Mass will stay the same but EV will keep increasing. Eventually when you squeeze it down till somewhere about ~0.35 inches(Derived from formula to calculate escape velocity), the escape velocity of earth would be 3,00,000 km/s, i.e. the speed of light. Now according to Einstein's General theory of relativity, nothing can travel faster then light. Thus our squeezed earth is now a black hole. Nothing can escape the gravity of it. Not even light. Our Sun can achieve the same EV if its radius is squeezed to ~2.5 km.

Black holes have immense gravity. Once you are close enough of it, there is no way back. The Universe is full of unbelievable stuffs, the more we learn, the more we get blown off.

Watch out for the Venus Transit

2012-05-29T10:36:00.001+05:30

Venus transit of 2012 :

This time its literary once in a lifetime event.

Venus transits occur in pairs that are eight years apart, but these dual events take place less than once per century. The last transit happened in 2004, and the next won't come until 2117. So next month's transit is the last chance for skywatchers to see Earth's so-called sister planet trek across the solar disk.

Dont miss it if weather permits. There are less chances to see from Mumbai as the sky is mostly covered in clouds in June. Lets hope for the best :)

Jupiter and Venus setting TimeLapse

2012-03-13T15:08:00.001+05:30

Jupiter and Venus heading towards conjunction...This timelase was taken on 12th March, 3 days before conjunction date.

Random nightsky,moon pics

2012-02-07T17:01:00.000+05:30

Lunar Eclipse on 10th December 2011

2011-12-12T17:38:00.003+05:30

Year's last lunar eclipse provided excellent views of moon. I took some pics and then set the camera to take images for timelapse..final video is below. This is my first time lapse of night sky and I do not have any tripod or mount therefore I just put camera on the ground facing moon..I had to move camera every 5 minutes of so to keep moon in the view..Click here to see some of the pics I took..Please share your comments/suggestions. Thanks for watching.

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Vinay

New pics uploaded

2011-11-09T13:20:00.000+05:30

Hi Friends,
I have uploaded few night sky pics in my gallery. please click here to see.

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Vinay

Summer Triangle

2011-09-23T15:39:00.000+05:30

Summer triangle from my balcony. it was around midnight and sky was getting clearer.
===========================
Camera: Canon SX130 IS
ISO: 200
Exposure:40sec
f/3.4

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Vinay

Canon SX130 with CHDK - HD Time Lapse Video 2 - Traffic

2011-08-31T11:20:00.000+05:30

2 sec exposure each..total 150 photos taken with 3 second interval..

Canon SX130 with CHDK - Time Lapse Video 1 - Clouds

2011-08-27T06:41:00.002+05:30

I created this Time lapse with Canon SX130- CHDK enabled.
total 207 shots were taken with 4 seconds exposure each and Merged with windows live movie maker.

countdown begins...one of the darkest lunar eclipse coming up..

2011-06-13T16:13:00.001+05:30

Hi,
The lunar eclipse of 15th June is going to be one of the darkest eclipse of the century. moon will turn blood red and then black for some moments..(for more info on Lunar Eclipse click here)

(image courtesy: NASA)
Keep looking up...

Night sky images

2011-05-27T17:50:00.008+05:30

Hi Guys,

I installed chdk in canon A700.(CHDK is excellent hack which enables many DSLR-like features in canon digital cameras.you can find all info about CHDK here).With CHDK I could take exposures upto 64 seconds. results are better then expected. See images below. Click the Image for larger version.


Draco


Hercules,Coma Boralis & Part of Bootes


Lyra,Hercules & Part of Ophiuchus


Scorpius


Hercules,Draco,Lyra & Part of Cygnus


Hercules,Coma Borealis,Bootes & Part of Ophiuchus


Ursa Major

New Equipment Added

2011-04-30T12:32:00.000+05:30

I added new 25mm GSO Plossl(click here for details) to my collection..its giving excellent results..taking pics of planets and moon through digital cameras will be easier now. will try and upload the pics soon..stay tuned..

Moon Images(Processed with Registax)

2011-04-15T16:48:00.000+05:30

Hi guys,

Yesterday night sky was clear so I tried record moon. With cheap webcam I was not getting satisfactory results, therefore I tried to process the images with a great freeware called Registax(you can download it from here). Though it was my first ever attempt with registax, I found it very easy to use and effective. Results are as below.

Before Processing

After Processing

Moon through telescope and webcam

2011-03-31T11:42:00.000+05:30

few weeks before I tried to record moon and other planets through my 4 inch reflector telescope and a webcam..results are following...videos are bit shaky as it was my 1st attempt...

Moon

Saturn

Jupiter & its Moons

New Supernova Lights Up Leo

2010-11-08T10:44:00.000+05:30

A new supernova? Darn right. Lighting up Leo? Well… not without some serious visual aid, but the fact that someone out there is watching and has invited us along for the ride is mighty important. And just who might that someone be? None other than Tim Puckett.
Less than 24 hours ago, the American Association of Variable Star Observer’s Report #222 stated:
“Bright Supernova in UGC 5189A: SN 2010jl
November 5, 2010
We have been informed by Tim Puckett and by the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBET 2532, Daniel W. E. Green, Ed.) of the discovery of a bright supernova in UGC 5189A by J. Newton and Puckett, Portal, AZ, on November 3.52 UT at unfiltered magnitude 13.5. Confirming images (limiting magnitude 19.1) by Puckett on Nov. 4.50 UT showed the object at magnitude 12.9.
Spectroscopic observations (CBET 2536, Daniel W. E. Green, Ed.) by S. Benetti and F. Bufano, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, on behalf of a larger collaboration, and by J. Vinko, University of Szeged, G. H. Marion, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and University of Texas, T. Pritchard, Pennsylvania State University, and J. C. Wheeler and E. Chatzopoulos, University of Texas, show that SN 2010jl is a type-IIn supernova. Vinko et al. also report that simultaneous measurements with Swift/UVOT in the ultraviolet bands confirm that the transient is ultraviolet-bright, as expected for young, interacting supernovae.
Coordinates: 09 42 53.33 +09 29 41.8 (J2000.0) This position is 2.4″ east and 7.7″ north of the center of UGC 5189A. This AAVSO Special Notice was prepared by Elizabeth O. Waagen.”

While magnitude 12-12.9 isn’t unaided eye bright by a long shot, it’s well within the reach of most of today’s backyard telescopes. The image you see here on the right is of UGC 5189A before the event and the lefthand image was taken at the time of the supernova report. Visually the SN event outshines the galaxy! While chasing a faint supernova event might not be everyone’s cup of tea, Mr. Puckett’s devotion is absolutely legendary and I strongly encourage you to have a look if you have the the tools and talent.
So many supernovae… So little time!

New Earth-sized Exoplanet is in Star’s Habitable Zone

2010-09-30T16:54:00.000+05:30

Artist illustration of a super Earth around Gliese 581

An enticing new extrasolar planet found using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii is just three times the mass of Earth and it orbits the parent star squarely in the middle of the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” a potential habitable region where liquid water could exist on the planet‘s surface. If confirmed, this would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one. The discoverers also say this finding could mean our galaxy may be teeming with prospective habitable planets.

“Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet,” said Steven Vogt from UC Santa Cruz. “The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common.”
Vogt and his team from the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey actually found two new planets around the heavily studied red dwarf star Gliese 581, where planets have been found previously. Now with six known planets, Gliese 581 hosts a planetary system most similar to our own. It is located 20 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra.
The most interesting of the two new planets is Gliese 581g, with a mass three to four times that of the Earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days. Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet with likely enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere.
The planet is also tidally locked to the star, meaning that one side is always facing the star in sunlight, while the side facing away from the star is in perpetual darkness. One effect of this is to stabilize the planet’s surface climates, according to Vogt. The most habitable zone on the planet’s surface would be on the terminator, the line between shadow and light, with surface temperatures decreasing toward the dark side and increasing toward the light side.
“Any emerging life forms would have a wide range of stable climates to choose from and to evolve around, depending on their longitude,” Vogt said.
There has been debate about the other planets found previously around Gliese 581, whether they could be habitable or not. Two of them lie at the edges of the habitable zone, one on the hot side (planet c) and one on the cold side (planet d). While some astronomers still think planet d may be habitable if it has a thick atmosphere with a strong greenhouse effect to warm it up, others are skeptical. The newly discovered planet g, however, lies right in the middle of the habitable zone.
“We had planets on both sides of the habitable zone–one too hot and one too cold–and now we have one in the middle that’s just right,” Vogt said.
The researchers estimate that the average surface temperature of the planet is between -24 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 to -12 degrees Celsius). Actual temperatures would range from blazing hot on the side facing the star to freezing cold on the dark side.
If Gliese 581g has a rocky composition similar to the Earth’s, its diameter would be about 1.2 to 1.4 times that of the Earth. The surface gravity would be about the same or slightly higher than Earth’s, so that a person could easily walk upright on the planet, Vogt said.
The planet was found using the HIRES spectrometer (designed by Vogt) on the Keck I Telescope, measuring the star’s radial velocity. The gravitational tug of an orbiting planet causes periodic changes in the radial velocity of the host star. Multiple planets induce complex wobbles in the star’s motion, and astronomers use sophisticated analyses to detect planets and determine their orbits and masses.
“It’s really hard to detect a planet like this,” Vogt said. “Every time we measure the radial velocity, that’s an evening on the telescope, and it took more than 200 observations with a precision of about 1.6 meters per second to detect this planet.”
In addition to the radial velocity observations, coauthors Henry and Williamson made precise night-to-night brightness measurements of the star with one of Tennessee State University’s robotic telescopes. “Our brightness measurements verify that the radial velocity variations are caused by the new orbiting planet and not by any process within the star itself,” Henry said.
The researchers also explored the implications of this discovery with respect to the number of stars that are likely to have at least one potentially habitable planet. Given the relatively small number of stars that have been carefully monitored by planet hunters, this discovery has come surprisingly soon.
“If these are rare, we shouldn’t have found one so quickly and so nearby,” Vogt said. “The number of systems with potentially habitable planets is probably on the order of 10 or 20 percent, and when you multiply that by the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, that’s a large number. There could be tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy.”
Source: University of California – Santa Cruz

ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR OCTOBER 2010

2010-09-29T19:05:00.001+05:30

Oct 1: Comet 103P Hartley is just 1 deg 37’ from Alpha Cassiopeia

Oct 1: Saturn Conjunction

Oct 1: Last Quarter Moon

Oct 5: A Waning Crescent Moon stands within 6 degrees from Regulus in East just before dawn

Oct 7: Mars is just 41’25” from a 2.7th mag star Alpha Librae after sunset in West

Oct 7: Comet 103P Hartley is just 1.5 deg away from “Double Clusters” in Perseus. Great opportunity for astro-photographers!!

Oct 8: New Moon

Oct 8-9: Draconids Meteor Shower will peak in a New Moon night. Expect a peak rate of 10 meteors per hour under clear, moonless conditions.

Oct 11: A Waxing Crescent Moon is just 2 degrees from Antares in West at the time of evening

Oct 15: First Quarter Moon

Oct 17: Mercury Superior Conjunction

Oct 18: Comet 103P Hartley is within 3 degrees south of brilliant Capella

Oct 20: The Moon is within 8 degrees from Jupiter

Oct 20: Comet 103P Hartley is closest to Earth by distance of 0.12 AU.

Oct 21-22: Orionids Meteor Shower will peak in presence of a Waxing Gibbous (95% illuminated) Moon. This shower produces a peak rate of 20 meteors per hour.

Oct 23: Comet 103P Hartley is just 1.5 deg from the Open Cluster M37 after midnight

Oct 23: Full Moon

Oct 25: The Moon is just about 4 degrees from M45

Oct 26: Comet 103P Hartley is 3 degrees from a rich open cluster M35 in Gemini after midnight

Oct 29: Venus Inferior Conjunction

Oct 30: Last Quarter Moon

THIS MONTH’S PLANET ROUND-UP

VENUS: Very low in the evening sky. The planet will be on Inferior Conjunction on 29th October.

MARS: Along with Venus, Mars is very low in the evening sky at West. Mars will be just 41’25” from a 2.7th mag star Alpha Librae on 7th.

JUPITER: Jupiter will be visible for most of the time of night during October. The planet URANUS will remain close with Jupiter.

SATURN: The ringed world will emerge from the early morning eastern sky around 20th August. The planet will be very close to Gamma Virginis star.

MERCURY: Mercury will be on Superior Conjunction on 17th.

Supernova Spews Its Guts Across Space

2010-09-03T15:06:00.000+05:30

The recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope has taken a new look at Supernova 1987A and its famous "String of Pearls," a glowing ring 6 trillion miles in diameter encircling the supernova remnant. The sharper and clearer images are allowing astronomers to see the “innards” of the star being ejected into space following the explosion, and comparing the new images with ones taken previously provides a unique glimpse of a young supernova remnant as it evolves. They found significant brightening of the object over time, and also evident is how the shock wave from the star’s explosion has expanded and rebounded.

Kevin France from the University of Colorado Boulder and colleagues compared the new Hubble data on the SN1987A taken in 2010 with older images, and observed the supernova in optical, ultraviolet and near-infrared light. They were able to look at the interplay between the stellar explosion and the 'String of Pearls' that encircles the supernova remnant. The gas ring — energized by X-rays — likely was spewed out about 20,000 years before the supernova exploded, and shock waves rushing out from the remnant have been brightening some 30 to 40 pearl-like "hot spots" in the ring — objects that likely will grow and merge together in the coming years to form a continuous, glowing circle.

Ultraluminous Gamma Ray Burst 080607 – A "Monster in the Dark"

2010-09-03T14:53:00.000+05:30

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are among the most energetic phenomena astronomers regularly observe. These events are triggered by massive explosions and a large amount of the energy if focused into narrow beams that sweep across the universe. These beams are so tightly concentrated that they can be seen across the visible universe and allow astronomers to probe the universe's history. If such an event happened in our galaxy and we stood in the path of the beam, the effects would be pronounced and may lead to large extinctions. Yet one of the most energetic GRBs on record (GRB 080607) was shrouded in cloud of gas and dust dimming the blast by a factor of 20 – 200, depending on the wavelength. Despite this strong veil, the GRB was still bright enough to be detected by small optical telescopes for over an hour. So what can this hidden monster tell astronomers about ancient galaxies and GRBs in general?
GRB 080607 was discovered on June 6, 2008 by the Swift satellite. Since GRBs are short lived events, searches for them are automated and upon detection, the Swift satellite immediately oriented itself towards the source. Other GRB hunting satellites quickly joined in and ground based observatories, including ROTSE-III and Keck made observations as well. This large collection of instruments allowed astronomers, led by D. A. Perley of UC Berkley, to develop a strong understanding of not just the GRB, but also the obscuring gas. Given that the host galaxy lies at a distance of over 4 billion light years, this has provided a unique probe into the nature of the environment of such distant galaxies.
One of the most surprising features was unusually strong absorption near 2175 °A. Although such absorption has been noticed in other galaxies, it has been rare in galaxies at such large cosmological distances. In the local universe, this feature seems to be most common in dynamically stable galaxies but tends to be "absent in more disturbed locations such as the SMC, nearby starburst galaxies" as well as some regions of the Milky Way which more turbulence is present. The team uses this feature to imply that the host galaxy was stable as well. Although this feature is familiar in nearby galaxies, observing it in this case makes it the furthest known example of this phenomenon. The precise cause of this feature is not yet known, although other studies have indicated "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and graphite" are possible suspects.
Earlier studies of this event have shown other novel spectral features. A paper by Sheffer et al. notes that the spectrum also revealed molecular hydrogen. Again, such a feature is common in the local universe and many other galaxies, but never before has such an observation been made linked to a galaxy in which a GRB has occurred. Molecular hydrogen (as well as other molecular compounds) become disassociated at high temperatures like the ones in galaxies containing large amounts of star formation that would produce regions with large stars capable of triggering GRBs. With observations of one molecule in hand, this lead Sheffer's team to suspect that there might be large amounts of other molecules, such as carbon monoxide (CO). This too was detected making yet another first for the odd environment of a GRB host.
This unusual environment may help to explain a class of GRBs known as "subluminous optical bursts" or "dark bursts" in which the optical component of the burst (especially the afterglow) is less bright than would be predicted by comparison to more traditional GRBs.
Sources:
Monster in the Dark: The Ultra Luminous GRB 080706 and its Dusty Environment
The Discovery of Vibrationally-Excited H2 In the Molecular Cloud Near GRB 080706

Sky Calender for September

2010-09-01T10:56:00.001+05:30

ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR SEPTEMBER 2010

Sept 1: The Moon is nearly 2 degrees SW of Pleiades after midnight

Sept 1: Venus is just 1 degree SW of Spica in the west after sunset

Sept 2: The Moon is within 8 degrees North of Aldebaran

Sept 3: Mercury Inferior Conjunction

Sept 8: New Moon

Sept 11: A Waxing Crescent Moon (only 14% illuminated) is just 1 degree away from bright Venus at 8:00pm in the western sky

Sept 14: The Moon stands within 4.5 degrees from Antares

Sept 15: First Quarter Moon

Sept 19: Mercury Greatest Western Elongation

Sept 21: Both Jupiter (Angular dia. 50 arc sec) and Uranus (Angular dia. 3.7 arc sec) are at opposition. Both the planets will be just 49’35” apart in the constellation Pisces.

Sept 23: Full Moon

Sept 28: The Moon and Pleiades are 5.5 degrees apart

SEPTEMBER 2010 PLANET ROUND-UP

Saturn: Very low in the western evening sky and will be lost in the glare of sun after mid September.

Mars: In the western evening sky in the constellation Virgo. The planet shines at mag. 1.5. The planet will be nearly 2 degrees from Spica on 5^th.

Venus: The brightest light in the western evening sky for the whole month. On 1^st September the planet will be just 1 degree from Spica. On 11^th the planet will be again 1 degree from beautiful Crescent Moon making a lovely scene fits in almost any wide-field instrument.

Neptune: Shines at mag. 7.8 throughout the month in the constellation Capricornus.

Jupiter & Uranus: Both planets will be at opposition on September 21^st and will be just 49’35” apart at that time. It will be great opportunity to see both planets together in one field of view when both are at opposition.

Mercury: The planet will emerge from the eastern morning sky around 10^th September. Mercury will be at greatest Western Elongation on 19^th. At that time the planet will be 18 degrees from sun.

Weird Crater on Mars is a Mystery

2010-08-28T13:05:00.000+05:30

Orcus Patera is an enigmatic elliptical depression. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum

This is one of the strangest looking craters ever found on Mars, and this platypus-tail-shaped depression, called Orcus Patera, is an enigma. The term ‘patera’ is used for complex or irregularly shaped volcanic craters, but planetary scientists aren’t sure if this landform is volcanic in origin. Orcus Patera lies between the volcanoes of Elysium Mons and Olympus Mons, but its formation remains a mystery. This is the latest image of the object, taken by ESA’s Mars Express.

It could be an impact crater that originally was round, but then subsequently deformed by compressional forces. Or, it could have formed from two craters next to each where the adjoining rims eroded. However, the most likely explanation is that it was made in an oblique impact, when a small body struck the surface at a very shallow angle.

Relief image of Orcus Patera. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

It is 380 km long by by 140 km wide, and has a rim that rises up to 1,800 meters above the surrounding plains, while the floor of the depression lies 400–600 m below the surroundings. The floor of the depression is unusually smooth.
The image above was created using a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) obtained from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. Elevation data from the DTM are color-coded: purple indicates the lowest-lying regions, and beige the higher elevations. The scale is in meters.
Source: ESA

Watch Titan Occult a Binary Star System

2010-08-28T13:03:00.000+05:30

Titan passing in front of the binary star system named NV0435215+200905. Credit: Palomar Observator

Scott Kardel from the Palomar Observatory just posted something extremely cool on his Palomar Skies website. Back in 2001, a group of astronomers used the 200-inch Hale Telescope equipped with adaptive optics to observe Saturn's moon Titan pass in front of a binary star system. The two stars are separated in the sky by just 1.5 arc seconds, but because of the fantastic resolving power of the Hale and its adaptive optics, visible in the image above is the light of the star nearest to Titan being refracted by Titan's dense atmosphere. As Scott said, such events are rare but valuable. Mike Brown (of Eris fame) was among the astronomers and on Twitter today, he linked to a video the team created from their observations, which is just awesome. Not only did they see the occultation, but they also found out that Titan has jet stream-like winds in its atmosphere. Watch the movie, (or see below, someone has now YouTubed it) and then read their paper about the event!

Massive Mega-Star Challenges Black Hole Theories

2010-08-19T15:22:00.000+05:30

Astronomers have discovered a massive star that once dwarfed our sun and is now challenging theories of how stars evolve, die and form black holes.

The star is a peculiar cosmic object known as a magnetar. Magnetars are extremely dense, super-magnetic stars that can form from supernova explosions.

The newly discovered magnetar is perplexing, because astronomers have calculated that its progenitor likely weighed at least 40 times as much as the sun. Large stars in this mass category are thought to become black holes, not magnetars, when they explode in supernovas.

"This therefore raises the thorny question of just how massive a star has to be to collapse to form a black hole if stars over 40 times as heavy as our sun cannot manage this feat," said researcher Norbert Langer of the Universität Bonn in Germany and the Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands.

When massive stars reach the end of their lives and die in supernovas, they leave behind remnants. If the star is very massive, that remnant is a black hole – an extremely dense collection of mass with such a strong gravitational pull, not even light can escape.

If the original star was slightly less massive, the supernova remnant will become a neutron star. These objects, made of mostly neutrons, are more dense than a regular star but less dense than a black hole.

Magnetars are a type of neutron star with colossal magnetic fields that are about a million billion times stronger than that of Earth.

Perplexing magnetic star

This unusual magnetar star was discovered in the star cluster Westerlund 1, located 16,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Ara (the Altar).

This special clump of hundreds of massive stars was formed in a single event, which means that all its stars are roughly the same age – between 3.5 and 5 million years old.

The age and characteristics of the cluster allowed astronomers to estimate the mass of the magnetar, which is one of only a few magnetars known in the Milky Way. Its mass puts it well within the range expected to create a black hole.

How massive stars die

Scientists have thought that stars with initial masses between about 10 and 25 suns would form neutron stars when they die, while stars above 25 times that of the sun would produce black holes.

The researchers think the magnetar in question must have lost much of its mass before it died to have ended up the way it did.

"These stars must get rid of more than nine tenths of their mass before exploding as a supernova, or they would otherwise have created a black hole instead," said researcher Ignacio Negueruela of the Universidad de Alicante in Spain. "Such huge mass losses before the explosion present great challenges to current theories of stellar evolution."

The researchers observed the magnetar with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. They detailed their findings in a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

This Week in Space

2010-08-09T12:06:00.000+05:30

Space Telescopes Team Up to Capture Spectacular Galactic Collision

2010-08-06T10:24:00.000+05:30

A new image of two tangled galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories. The Antennae galaxies, located about 62 million light-years from Earth, are shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold and brown), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red). The Antennae galaxies take their name from the long antenna-like arms seen in wide-angle views of the system. These features were produced in the collision. Image credit: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, Spitzer: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Hubble: NASA/STScI

From JPL:
A new image of two tangled galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories. The Antennae galaxies, located about 62 million light-years from Earth, are shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold and brown), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red). The Antennae galaxies take their name from the long, antenna-like arms seen in wide-angle views of the system. These features were produced in the collision.

The collision, which began more than 100 million years ago and is still occurring, has triggered the formation of millions of stars in clouds of dusts and gas in the galaxies. The most massive of these young stars have already sped through their evolution in a few million years and exploded as supernovas.
The X-ray image from Chandra shows huge clouds of hot, interstellar gas, which have been injected with rich deposits of elements from supernova explosions. This enriched gas, which includes elements such as oxygen, iron, magnesium and silicon, will be incorporated into new generations of stars and planets. The bright, point-like sources in the image are produced by material falling onto black holes and neutron stars that are remnants of the massive stars. Some of these black holes may have masses that are almost one hundred times that of the sun.
The Spitzer data show infrared light from warm dust clouds that have been heated by newborn stars, with the brightest clouds lying in the overlap region between the two galaxies. The Hubble data reveal old stars and star-forming regions in gold and white, while filaments of dust appear in brown. Many of the fainter objects in the optical image are clusters containing thousands of stars.