This year has been declared the International Year of Light (IYL) by the United Nations, according to a press release from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. To celebrate, Chandra released images that were taken by telescopes "tuned" to various light wavelengths.
The images are described thusly, by the press release, starting at the upper left and moving clockwise:
"Messier 51 (M51): This galaxy, nicknamed the 'Whirlpool,' is a spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way, located about 30 million light-years from Earth. This composite image combines data collected at X-ray wavelengths by Chandra (purple), ultraviolet by the galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX, blue); visible light by Hubble (green), and infrared by Spitzer (red).
"SNR 0519-69.0: When a massive star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, it left behind an expanding shell of debris called SNR 0519-69.0. Here, multimillion degree gas is seen in X-rays from Chandra (blue). The outer edge of the explosion (red) and stars in the field of view are seen in visible light from Hubble.
"MSH 11-62: When X-rays, shown in blue, from Chandra and XMM-Newton are joined in this image with radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (pink) and visible light data from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS, yellow), a new view of the region emerges. This object, known as MSH 11-62, contains an inner nebula of charged particles that could be an outflow from the dense spinning core left behind when a massive star exploded.
"RCW 86: This supernova remnant is the remains of an exploded star that may have been witnessed by Chinese astronomers almost 2,000 years ago. Modern telescopes have the advantage of observing this object in light that is completely invisible to the unaided human eye. This image combines X-rays from Chandra (pink and blue) along with visible emission from hydrogen atoms in the rim of the remnant, observed with the 0.9-m Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (yellow).
"Cygnus A: This galaxy, at a distance of some 700 million light-years, contains a giant bubble filled with hot, X-ray emitting gas detected by Chandra (blue). Radio data from the NSF's Very Large Array (red) reveal 'hot spots' about 300,000 light-years out from the center of the galaxy where powerful jets emanating from the galaxy's supermassive black hole end. Visible light data (yellow) from both Hubble and the DSS complete this view."
Chandra has also created an online gallery of images called "Light: Beyond the Bulb."
