Chandra

Chandra X-ray Observatory

active Mission

The Telescope

Learn About Chandra's Instruments

Where Is Chandra?

Track the Telescope

About Chandra

10 Facts About Chandra

Chandra detects X-ray emissions from very hot regions of the universe such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter around black holes.

Type

Space Telescope

Launch

July 23, 1999

Target

Universe

Objective

Detect X-ray emissions

Experience Earth, our solar system, nearby asteroids, the universe, and the spacecraft exploring them with immersive real-time 3D web-based apps for Mac, PC and mobile devices. No download or sign up necessary.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/VTAD

Chandra Stories

Explore All Chandra X-Ray Observatory Stories

Article

5 min read

NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Find Supermassive Black Hole Duo

This is an artist's depiction of a pair of active black holes at the heart of two merging galaxies. They are both surrounded by an accretion disk of hot gas. Some of the material is ejected along the spin axis of each black hole. Confined by powerful magnetic fields, the jets blaze across space at nearly the speed of light as devastating beams of energy.

Article

5 min read

New NASA Sonifications Listen to the Universe’s Past

5 min read

Cassiopeia A, Then the Cosmos: 25 Years of Chandra X-ray Science

Article3 weeks ago

5 min read

NASA Telescopes Work Out Black Hole’s Snack Schedule

Image Article

Side-by-side images of the Pillars of Creation from Hubble (left) and Webb (right). In the visible view from Hubble, the pillars appear thick, dusty, and brown with yellow streamers along their edges. The background of this Hubble image is like a sunrise, beginning in yellows at the bottom, before transitioning to light green and deeper blues at the top. In Webb's near-infrared view, the pillars appear brighter in orange and yellowish tones, with fainter blue streamers along the edges. The background in Webb’s image appears in blue hues with a many more stars than can be seen in visible light.

4 min read

AstroViz: Iconic Pillars of Creation Star in NASA’s New 3D Visualization

Article1 month ago

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno