May 16, 2001
Light takes eight minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth. It took the universe 13.8 billion years to make you.
The Center of the Circinus Galaxy in X-Rays
Birthday · May 16, 2001
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APOD published May 16, 2001. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Are black holes the cause of X-rays that pour out from the center of the Circinus galaxy? A new high-resolution image from the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory has resolved the inner regions of this nearby galaxy into several smaller sources. The image is shown above in representative-color. Extended X-ray emission from the center appears to match optical light and appears consistent with a model where hot gas is escaping from a supermassive black hole at Circinus' center. At least one of the other sources varies its X-ray brightness as expected from a binary star system, indicating that the system is small yet massive, and giving credence to a model where a black hole is surrounded by doughnut-shaped ring. The region shown spans about 5000 light-years across.