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Chandra X-ray
Observatory Center
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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The Antennae (NGC4038/4039): Colliding galaxies about 60 million light years from Earth located in the constellation Corvus.
(Credit: NASA/SAO/CXC/G.Fabbiano et al.)

Caption: Chandra's spectacular image of the Antennae shows the central regions of two merging galaxies. The bright fuzzy patches are superbubbles thousands of light years in diameter that were produced by the accumulated power of thousands of supernovas. The dozens of bright point-like sources are neutron stars or black holes pulling gas off nearby stars. The remaining glow of X-ray emission could be due to many faint X-ray sources, or to clouds of hot gas in the galaxies.

Scale: Image is 4 arcmin on a side.

Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image

CXC operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory