CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug 30 -- The Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA's newest and most powerful x-ray telescope, has delivered its first images. Chandra produced an enhanced view of the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant using a 5000-s exposure of the observatory's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS). The detailed image shows the stellar shock waves associated with the explosion of a star. It may also provide x-ray astronomers with their first glimpse of a neutron star or black hole remnant of the explosion believed to have produced the Cassiopeia A remnant. The results were unveiled at a news conference hosted by NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which operates the Chandra observatory and conducts the Chandra science mission for NASA.
Chandra's ACIS was also used to produce an image of PKS 0637-752, a quasar that radiates the energy of 10 trillion suns from a region smaller than Earth's solar system. A super massive black hole is thought to be the source of this energy. The x-ray image of PKS 0637-752 also reveals an extended radio jet stretching across several hundred thousand light years.