Observation • December 12th, 2014 • sig14-030
sig14-030
At this time of year, holiday parties often include festive lights. When galaxies get together, they also may be surrounded by a spectacular light show. That's the case with NGC 2207 and IC 2163, which are located about 130 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Canis Major.
This pair of spiral galaxies has been caught in a grazing encounter. NGC 2207 and IC 2163 have hosted three supernova explosions in the past 15 years and have produced one of the most bountiful collections of super-bright X-ray lights known. These special objects -- known as "ultraluminous X-ray sources" (ULXs) -- have been found using data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
This composite image of NGC 2207 and IC 2163 contains Chandra data in pink, optical-light data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope visible-light data in blue, white, orange and brown, and infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in red.
About the Object
Color Mapping
Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
Infrared | 8.0 µm | Spitzer IRAC |
Optical | 814 nm | Hubble WFPC2 |
Optical | 555 nm | Hubble WFPC2 |
Optical | 439 nm | Hubble WFPC2 |
X-ray | 1.5 keV | Chandra ACIS |
Astrometrics