X-ray, Optical & Radio Images of VLA J2130+12 (IMAGE)

International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research

X-ray, Optical & Radio Images of VLA J2130+12

Caption

By combining data from Chandra and several other telescopes, astronomers have identified the true nature of an unusual source in the Milky Way galaxy. This discovery implies that there could be a much larger number of black holes in the Galaxy that have previously been unaccounted for. The images on the left show X-rays from Chandra and an optical image from Hubble of a large area around the source VLA J2130+12, including M15. The images on the right show the source VLA J2130+12 that is bright in radio waves, but can only be giving off a very small amount of X-rays. These pieces of information indicate the source contains a black hole with a few times the mass of the Sun.

Credit

(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Alberta/B.Tetarenko et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/AUI/NRAO/Curtin Univ./J. Miller-Jones)

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