Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2000 January 14

Chandra Resolves the Hard X-Ray Background
Credit: R. Mushotzky (GSFC) et al., Chandra, NASA

Explanation: It is everywhere but nobody knew why. In every direction at all times, the sky glows in X-rays. The X-ray background phenomenon was discovered over 35 years ago, soon after the first X-ray satellites were launched, and has since gone unexplained. Yesterday results were released using data from the recently launched Chandra X-Ray Observatory that appears to have resolved much of this mystery. The above photograph shows that about 80 percent of the apparently diffuse hard X-ray background can be resolved into very many very faint sources. The new question is now what are these sources? Early speculation, much of which predates these observations, holds that many of these sources are the active centers of distant galaxies, probably involving massive black holes. Still other sources may be of origins currently unknown.

Tomorrow's picture: The Sun Also Rises


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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.