This X-ray image taken by NASA's Chandra satellite shows the central region of our galaxy (see CERN Courier March 2002 p11). The image is roughly aligned with the galactic plane. The super-massive black hole at the galactic centre is located near the dense cluster of stars at the right of the image. Intense X-ray emission from point-like sources in this cluster occurs when winds blowing off the surfaces of massive stars collide with winds from orbiting companion stars; it also comes from stellar corpses in the form of neutron stars or black holes orbiting a normal star in a binary system. The diffuse X-ray emission reveals the presence of very hot gas, which is likely to have been heated by past supernova explosions. (Courtesy NASA/CXC/UMass Amherst/Q D Wang et al.)
CERN Courier
Sep 7, 2006
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Compiled by Marc Türler, INTEGRAL Science Data Centre and Geneva Observatory