#xrayastronomy

Dive into more cosmic marvels and celebrate 25 years of Chandra at Chandra’s 25th Anniversary Gallery.

Not 1, not 2, but 3 supermassive black holes power ⚡️ the giant irregular galaxy NGC 6240. Located about 400 million light years away, NGC 6240 is not only irregular in its shape, but it is also an ultra luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) . ULIRG is a type of galaxy 🌌 that emits more energy in the infrared portion of the spectrum than visible, most likely due to the heating of interstellar dust. In NGC 6240, this is most likely due to the formation of stars ✨ and the accretion of matter around the supermassive black holes. . By using the Chandra X-ray observatory (bottom left), scientists were able to determine that this galaxy hosted 2 supermassive black holes (bottom right), however, a recent study using the MUSE instrument on board the Very Large Telescope shows that there are (through resolving the larger bright X-ray source shown in the image) in fact 3! . Credit: ESA/Hubble / CC BY 4.0, NASA / public domain and NASA/CXC/NGST / public domain. . #astronomy #space #galaxies #xrayastronomy #astrophysics #blackholes #supermassiveblackholes #universe #galacticmerger #blackhole #nasa #europeanspaceagency #telescope #spacetelescope https://www.instagram.com/p/B5TBqXUl80P/?igshid=b4qc2aoriwjy