25 years, 25 photos: NASA's Chandra Observatory peeks into the mysteries of cosmos

New Delhi

NASA is celebrating the 25th anniversary of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory launch. To mark the momentous occasion, the space agency shared a picture of the NGC 6872, a spiral galaxy located in the Pavo (Peacock) constellation. This galaxy has never been pictured before, and that makes it special. A total of 25 images containing data from Chandra have been shared by NASA. These images are just a sample of almost 25,000 observations made by Chandra in its quarter-century in space.

NGC 6872 spans across a whopping 522,000 light-years, making it more than five times the size of the Milky Way. In 2013, a fascinating fact about the galaxy was discovered by a set of astronomers from different countries. These scientists from the United States, Chile, and Brazil scoured through archival data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer and found it to be the largest-known spiral galaxy. However, the NGC 262, a galaxy that measures 1.3 million light-years in diameter, later broke its record. 

Astronomers combined X-rays from Chandra with other observatories in space and telescopes on the ground to probe several cosmic mysteries.

Facts about Chandra X-ray Observatory 

Space shuttle Columbia launched on July 23, 1999, carrying with it Chandra. At the time, it was the heaviest payload to have ever been carried by the shuttle. Commander Eileen Collins led operations to successfully deploy Chandra into its highly elliptical orbit. In this orbit, it sits at nearly one-third of the distance to the Moon.

“For a quarter century, Chandra has made discovery after amazing discovery,” said Pat Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center located at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Astronomers have used Chandra to investigate mysteries that we didn’t even know about when we were building the telescope — including exoplanets and dark energy.”

The X-ray Observatory is especially important as it can help point out certain regions in the space that glow strongly in X-rays. This includes debris from stars that have exploded and material swirling around black holes. X-rays are also released by stars, galaxies, and even planets that can be studied with Chandra.

(All photos credit: NASA)