Description: This composite image of VV 340 contains X-ray data from Chandra (purple) and optical data from Hubble (red, green, blue). The two galaxies shown here are in the early stage of an interaction that will eventually lead to them merging in millions of years. The Chandra data shows that the northern galaxy contains a rapidly growing supermassive black hole that is heavily obscured by dust and gas. Data from other wavelengths shows that the two interacting galaxies are evolving at different rates.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: 2011

Persistent URL: <a href="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/vv340/" rel="nofollow">chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/vv340/</a>

Repository: <a href="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/" rel="nofollow">Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory</a>