A bouquet of thousands of stars in bloom has arrived. This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star forming region called 30 Doradus.

By combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and green) with optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (yellow) and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (orange), this stellar arrangement comes alive.

Otherwise known as the Tarantula Nebula, 30 Dor is located about 160,000 light-years away in a small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way known as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Because it one of the brightest and populated star-forming regions to Earth, 30 Dor is a frequent target for scientists trying to learn more about how stars are born.

With enough fuel to have powered the manufacturing of stars for at least 25 million years, 30 Dor is the most powerful stellar nursery in the local group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, the LMC, and the Andromeda galaxy.

The massive young stars in 30 Dor send cosmically strong winds out into space. Along with the matter and energy ejected by stars that have previously exploded, these winds have carved out an eye-catching display of arcs, pillars, and bubbles.

A dense cluster in the center of 30 Dor contains the most massive stars astronomers have ever found, each only about one to two million years old. (Our Sun is over a thousand times older with an age of about 5 billion years.)

This new image includes the data from a large Chandra program that involved about 23 days of observing time, greatly exceeding the 1.3 days of observing that Chandra previously conducted on 30 Dor. The 3,615 X-ray sources detected by Chandra include a mixture of massive stars, double-star systems, bright stars that are still in the process of forming, and much smaller clusters of young stars.

There is a large quantity of diffuse, hot gas seen in X-rays, arising from different sources including the winds of massive stars and from the gas expelled by supernova explosions. This data set will be the best available for the foreseeable future for studying diffuse X-ray emission in star-forming regions.

The long observing time devoted to this cluster allows astronomers the ability to search for changes in the 30 Dor’s massive stars. Several of these stars are members of double star systems and their movements can be traced by the changes in X-ray brightness.

A paper describing these results appears in the July 2024 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:

https://www.nasa.gov/chandra

https://chandra.si.edu

Visual Description

This release features a highly detailed composite image of a star-forming region of space known as 30 Doradus, shaped like a bouquet, or a maple leaf.

30 Doradus is a powerful stellar nursery. In 23 days of observation, the Chandra X-ray telescope revealed thousands of distinct star systems. Chandra data also revealed a diffuse X-ray glow from winds blowing off giant stars, and X-ray gas expelled by exploding stars, or supernovas.

In this image, the X-ray wind and gas takes the shape of a massive purple and pink bouquet with an extended central flower, or perhaps a leaf from a maple tree. The hazy, mottled shape occupies much of the image, positioned just to our left of center, tilted slightly to our left. Inside the purple and pink gas and wind cloud are red and orange veins, and pockets of bright white light. The pockets of white light represent clusters of young stars. One cluster at the heart of 30 Doradus houses the most massive stars astronomers have ever found.

The hazy purple and pink bouquet is surrounded by glowing dots of green, white, orange, and red. A second mottled purple cloud shape, which resembles a ring of smoke, sits in our lower righthand corner.

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov

Astronomers have taken a crucial step in showing that the most massive black holes in the universe can create their own meals. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) provide new evidence that outbursts from black holes can help cool down gas to feed themselves.

This study was based on observations of seven clusters of galaxies. The centers of galaxy clusters contain the universe’s most massive galaxies, which harbor huge black holes with masses ranging from millions to tens of billions of times that of the Sun. Jets from these black holes are driven by the black holes feasting on gas.

These images show two of the galaxy clusters in the study, the Perseus Cluster and the Centaurus Cluster. Chandra data represented in blue reveals X-rays from filaments of hot gas, and data from the VLT, an optical telescope in Chile, shows cooler filaments in red.

The results support a model where outbursts from the black holes trigger hot gas to cool and form narrow filaments of warm gas. Turbulence in the gas also plays an important role in this triggering process.

According to this model, some of the warm gas in these filaments should then flow into the centers of the galaxies to feed the black holes, causing an outburst. The outburst causes more gas to cool and feed the black holes, leading to further outbursts.

This model predicts there will be a relationship between the brightness of filaments of hot and warm gas in the centers of galaxy clusters. More specifically, in regions where the hot gas is brighter, the warm gas should also be brighter. The team of astronomers has, for the first time, discovered such a relationship, giving critical support for the model.

This result also provides new understanding of these gas-filled filaments, which are important not just for feeding black holes but also for causing new stars to form. This advance was made possible by an innovative technique that isolates the hot filaments in the Chandra X-ray data from other structures, including large cavities in the hot gas created by the black hole’s jets.

The newly found relationship for these filaments shows remarkable similarity to the one found in the tails of jellyfish galaxies, which have had gas stripped away from them as they travel through surrounding gas, forming long tails. This similarity reveals an unexpected cosmic connection between the two objects and implies a similar process is occurring in these objects.

This work was led by Valeria Olivares from the University of Santiago de Chile, and was published Monday in Nature Astronomy. The study brought together international experts in optical and X-ray observations and simulations from the United States, Chile, Australia, Canada, and Italy. The work relied on the capabilities of the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on the VLT, which generates 3D views of the universe.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:

https://www.nasa.gov/chandra

https://chandra.si.edu

Visual Description

This release features composite images shown side-by-side of two different galaxy clusters, each with a central black hole surrounded by patches and filaments of gas. The galaxy clusters, known as Perseus and Centaurus, are two of seven galaxy clusters observed as part of an international study led by the University of Santiago de Chile.

In each image, a patch of purple with neon pink veins floats in the blackness of space, surrounded by flecks of light. At the center of each patch is a glowing, bright white dot. The bright white dots are black holes. The purple patches represent hot X-ray gas, and the neon pink veins represent filaments of warm gas. According to the model published in the study, jets from the black holes impact the hot X-ray gas. This gas cools into warm filaments, with some warm gas flowing back into the black hole. The return flow of warm gas causes jets to again cool the hot gas, triggering the cycle once again.

While the images of the two galaxy clusters are broadly similar, there are significant visual differences. In the image of the Perseus Cluster on the left, the surrounding flecks of light are larger and brighter, making the individual galaxies they represent easier to discern. Here, the purple gas has a blue tint, and the hot pink filaments appear solid, as if rendered with quivering strokes of a paintbrush. In the image of the Centaurus Cluster on the right, the purple gas appears softer, with a more diffuse quality. The filaments are rendered in more detail, with feathery edges, and gradation in color ranging from pale pink to neon red.

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov

Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) XMM-Newton that examined the effects of X-rays on potential planets around the most common type of stars.

Astronomers found that only a planet with greenhouse gases in its atmosphere like Earth and at a relatively large distance away from the star they studied would have a chance to support life as we know it around a nearby star.  

Wolf 359 is a red dwarf with a mass about a tenth that of the Sun. Red dwarf stars are the most common stars in the universe and live for billions of years, providing ample time for life to develop. At a distance of only 7.8 light-years away, Wolf 359 is also one of the closest stars to the solar system.

“Wolf 359 can help us unlock the secrets around stars and habitability,” said Scott Wolk of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), who led the study. “It’s so close and it belongs to such an important class of stars – it’s a great combination.”

Because red dwarfs are the most prevalent types of stars, astronomers have looked hard to find exoplanets around them. Astronomers have found some evidence for two planets in orbit around Wolf 359 using optical telescopes, but those conclusions have been challenged by other scientists.  

“While we don’t have proof of planets around Wolf 359 yet, it seems very possible that it hosts multiple planets,” Wolk added. “This makes it an excellent test bed to look at what planets would experience around this kind of star.”

Wolk and his colleagues used Chandra and XMM to study the amounts of steady X-rays and extreme ultraviolet (UV) radiation – the most energetic type of UV radiation – that Wolf 359 would unleash on the possible planets around it.

They found that Wolf 359 is producing enough damaging radiation that only a planet with greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in its atmosphere – and located at a relatively large distance from the star – would likely be able to sustain life.

“Just being far enough away from the star’s harmful radiation wouldn’t be enough to make it habitable,” said co-author Vinay Kashyap, also of CfA. “A planet around Wolf 359 would also need to be blanketed in greenhouse gases like Earth is.”

To study the effects of energetic radiation on the habitability of the planet candidates, the team considered the star’s habitable zone – the region around a star where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. 

The outer limit of the habitable zone for Wolf 359 is about 15% of the distance between Earth and the Sun, because the red dwarf is much less bright than the Sun. Neither of the planet candidates for this system is located in Wolf 359’s habitable zone, with one too close to the star and the other too far out.

“If the inner planet is there, the X-ray and extreme UV radiation it is subjected to would destroy the atmosphere of this planet in only about a million years,” said co-author Ignazio Pillitteri of CfA and the National Institute for Astrophysics in Palermo, Italy.

The team also considered the effects of radiation on as-yet undetected planets within the habitable zone. They concluded that a planet like the Earth in the middle of the habitable zone should be able to sustain an atmosphere for almost two billion years, while one near the outer edge could last indefinitely, helped by the warming effects of greenhouse gases.

Another big danger for planets orbiting stars like Wolf 359 is from X-ray flares, or occasional bright bursts of X-rays, on top of the steady, everyday output from the star. Combining observations made with Chandra and XMM-Newton resulted in the discovery of 18 X-ray flares from Wolf 359 over 3.5 days.

Extrapolating from these observed flares, the team expects that much more powerful and damaging flares would occur over longer periods of time. The combined effects of the steady X-ray and UV radiation and the flares mean that any planet located in the habitable zone is unlikely to have a significant atmosphere long enough for multicellular life, as we know it on Earth, to form and survive. The exception is the habitable zone’s outer edge if the planet has a significant greenhouse effect.

These results were presented at the 245^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland, and are being prepared for publication in a journal. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:

https://www.nasa.gov/chandra

https://chandra.si.edu

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov

From new perspectives on the early universe to illuminating the extreme environment near a black hole, discoveries from NASA missions will be highlighted at the 245^th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The meeting will take place Jan. 12-16 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Press conferences highlighting results enabled by NASA missions will stream live on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel. Additional agency highlights for registered attendees include:

• NASA Town Hall: Monday, Jan. 13, 12:45 p.m. EST
• Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 p.m. EST
• James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m. EST

Throughout the week, experts at the NASA Exhibit Booth will deliver science talks about missions including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called “Webb” or “JWST”), Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station that will be repaired in a spacewalk Jan. 16. Talks will also highlight future missions such as Pandora, Roman, LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), which is targeted to launch in late February; as well as mission concepts for NASA’s new Probe Explorers mission class in astrophysics, open science, heliophysics, and NASA Science Activation.

Members of the media can request interviews with NASA experts on any of these topics by contacting Alise Fisher at alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov.

Schedule of Highlights (EST)

Monday, Jan. 13

10 a.m.: Special Session – “SPHEREx: The Upcoming All-Sky Infrared Spectroscopic Survey”
Chesapeake 4-5

10 a.m.: Special Session – “Early Science Results from XRISM [X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission]”
National Harbor 10

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “A Feast of Feasting Black Holes”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, NICER, NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), and Hubble, as well as XMM-Newton, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, will be featured:

• “Witnessing the Birth of a New Plasma Jet from a Supermassive Black Hole”
• “Rapidly Evolving X-Ray Oscillations in the Active Galaxy 1ES 1927+654”
• “Uncovering the Dining Habits of Supermassive Black Holes in Our Cosmic Backyard with NuLANDS”
• “The Discovery of a Newborn Quasar Jet Triggered by a Cosmic Dance”

12:45 p.m.: NASA Town Hall
Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
Potomac Ballroom AB

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Supernovae and Massive Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble space telescopes will be highlighted:

• “JWST Discovery of a Distant Supernova Linked to a Massive Progenitor in the Early Universe”
• “Core-Collapse Supernovae as Key Dust Producers: New Insights from JWST”
• “JWST Tracks the Expanding Dusty Fingerprints of a Massive Binary”
• “Stellar Pyrotechnics on Display in Super Star Cluster”
• “A Blue Lurker Emerges from a Triple-System Merger”

Tuesday, Jan. 14

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Black Holes & New Outcomes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s NuSTAR, Chandra, and Webb missions will be highlighted:

• “A Variable X-Ray Monster at the Epoch of Reionization”
• “JWST’s Little Red Dots and the Rise of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei in the Early Universe”
• “Revealing the Mid-Infrared Properties of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole”

2 p.m.: Special Session – “Open Science: NASA Astrophysics in the Roman Era”
Chesapeake 4-5

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Information from Milky Way Highlights”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Chandra missions will be highlighted:

• “Infrared Echoes of Cassiopeia A Reveal the Dynamic Interstellar Medium”
• “A Path-Breaking Observation of the Cold Neutral Medium of the Milky Way Through Thermal Light Echoes”
• “X-Ray Echoes from Sgr A* Provide Insight on the 3D Structure of Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center”

3:40 p.m.: Plenary – “A Detector Backstory: How Silicon Detectors Came to Enable Space Missions”
Shouleh Nikzad, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Potomac Ballroom AB

6:30 p.m.: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall
National Harbor 11

Wednesday, Jan. 15

8 a.m.: Plenary – “HEAD Bruno Rossi Prize Lecture: The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)”
Martin Weisskopf, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (emeritus), and Paolo Soffitta, INAF-IAPS (National Institute for Astrophysics-Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology)
Potomac Ballroom AB

10 a.m.: Special Session – Habitable Worlds Observatory
Potomac Ballroom C

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Discovering the Universe Beyond Our Galaxy”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Hubble and Webb will be highlighted:

• “The Hubble Tension in Our Own Backyard”
• “JWST Reveals the Early Universe in Our Backyard”
• “Growing in the Wind: Watching a Galaxy Seed Its Environment”

11:40 a.m.: Plenary – “Are We Alone? The Search for Life on Habitable Worlds”
Giada Arney, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Potomac Ballroom AB

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Findings About Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s Webb and Solar Dynamics Observatory will be highlighted:

• “A Super Star Cluster Is Born: JWST Reveals Dust and Ice in a Stellar Nursery”
• “The Discovery of Ancient Relics in a Distant Evolved Galaxy”
• “Exploring the Sun’s Active Regions in the Moments Before Flares”

6:30 p.m.: James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall
Potomac Ballroom C

Thursday, Jan. 16

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Exoplanets: From Formation to Disintegration”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Pandora, Chandra, TESS, and Webb missions, as well as XMM-Newton, will be highlighted:

• “A New NASA Mission to Characterize Exoplanets and Their Host Stars”
• “X-Rays in the Prime of Life: Irradiating Vulnerable Planets”
• “Bright Star, Fading World: Dusty Debris of a Dying Planet”
• “JWST Exposes Hot Rock Entrails from a Planet’s Demise”

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Galactic Histories and Policy Futures”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble will be highlighted:

• “The Boundary of Galaxy Formation: Constraints from the Ancient Star Formation of the Isolated, Extremely Low-Mass Galaxy Leo P”
• “Resolving 90 Million Stars in the Southern Half of Andromeda”

For more information on the meeting, including press registration and the complete meeting schedule, visit:

https://aas.org/meetings/aas245

Media Contacts

Alise Fisher / Liz Landau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546 / 202-358-0845
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov