Legacy Astronomical Images > Galactic Sources Series > Black Holes Unit

Description

Black Holes are objects with such high gravity that not even light can escape. These may be formed when the most massive of stars die, and their cores collapse into a superdense mass.

Collection Items

Dark Nebula L483
Description: This image shows optical and radio views of The L483 Molecular Cloud. The top panel is an infrared image (in the `J' band at 1.2 microns) in which the dark cloud L483 stands out against a Scutum starfield. Deep within, a purple glow locates one lobe…

Omega Nebula (M17) Composite
Description: The Omega Nebula (also known as M17, the Swan Nebula, and the Lobster Nebula) lies about 5700 light years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. The nebula is found at the edge of a dark gas cloud in which new stars are being born. Optical light,…

Cygnus X-1 Image with the Green Bank Telescope
Description: An AIPS++ image of the Cygnus X region that was made during GBT commissioning at 790 MHz. The signal from Cygnus A is completely saturated. The beamwidth of the GBT at 790 MHz is approximately 16 arcminutes. The observation was made by the GBT…

Stars and Gas Orbiting the Massive Black Hole
Description: Our Milky Way, like many other galaxies, harbors a massive black hole at its center that greatly influences the evolution of the nearby stars and gas. This image of the Milky Way's central region combines data over a wide range of wavelengths and…

The Heart of Draco the Radio Galaxy 3C 305
Description: Telescopes that allow scientists to study the Universe at radio, optical, and X-ray wavelengths were used to create this intriguing image of the radio galaxy, 3C 305, which is located in the constellation of Draco the Dragon. The radio data (blue)…

SS 433 Radio / X-Ray Star
Description: SS433 is an object known as an X-ray binary. X-ray binaries are systems of a "normal" star in orbit around a very dense massive compact object, a black hole or neutron star. In these systems there is frequently matter transfer from the normal star…

Tycho's SNR (Radio/Optical Mosaic)
Description: Left: Optical image of Tycho's SNR taken with the Palomar 200-in telescope. Right: Radio emission from this remnant of the supernova of 1572 is produced by extremely energetic electrons gyrating in a magnetic field. The morphology of the spherically…

Cygnus X-3 Radio Jets
Description: This sequence shows the development of radio jets in the microquasar Cygnus X-3 as imaged by the VLA at arcsecond angular scales. Colors are coded in a logarithmic scale. Cygnus X-3 is a binary system which contains a massive Wolf Rayet star with a…

SS 433 Radio / X-Ray Star
Description: This VLA image of the x-ray and radio-emitting star SS 433 is in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is reasonably close to the Earth, hence we can study it in great detail.

Microquasar GRS 1915+105 (V* V1487 Aql)
Description: This sequence of VLA images shows the violent ejection of twin radio-emitting blobs of plasma, from a black hole of about 14 solar masses, residing in our own Galaxy. In this sequence of six images shown (epochs appear on the right) we see, on top,…

Crab Nebula (M1)
Description: The Crab Nebula (M1) is the remnant of the earliest known supernova explosion, recorded by Chinese astronomers in AD 1054. A novel technique developed by radio astronomers during the design of a proposed new telescope has allowed them to make a radio…

Scorpius X-1
Description: This is a frame from a "movie" of the binary-star system Scorpius X-1, more than 9,000 light-years from Earth. Made using a world-wide collection of radio telescopes, this movie covers 56 hours during June of 1999. In the movie, the numbers along the…

High Mass X-ray Binary LS 5039
Description: LS 5039 is a high mass X-ray binary (HMXB) in our Galaxy, at a distance of 10000 light years from the Sun. It is located in the constellation of Scutum. This radio image of LS 5039 shows the presence of radio jets emanating from a central core in…

SS 433 Brightening Regions
Description: SS433 is a binary star system in the constellation Aquila, consisting of an early type star and a compact object (neutron star or black hole). Material from the normal star is falling toward the compact object. This accretion is frequently associated…

X-Ray Nova GRO J1655-40
Description: A time ordered sequence of images of the microquasar GRO J1655-10, with earlier times at the top and later times underneath. This sequence covers a month in the life of the microquasar, as imaged by the VLBA. GRO J1655-40 is a binary system in which…

SS 433 X-ray Binary
Description: SS433 is an object known as an X-ray binary. X-ray binaries are systems of a "normal" star in orbit around a very dense massive compact object, a black hole or neutron star. In these systems there is frequently matter transfer from the normal star…

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