Blue points of light and a blue haze on a black background. The blue haze roughly corresponds to the location of the galaxy’s bar in images taken at other wavelengths. A series of bright blue points are at the center of the hazy structure.

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1. Kelly Lepo (kellylepo@astrodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 11-Feb-2024 22:36:54 UTC Kelly Lepo

   in reply to

   This image of NGC 3627 from the Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the hottest gas in the galaxy as a diffuse blue glow, found in the galaxy’s core, bar, and innermost spiral arm. The bright X-ray source at the center is likely powered by material falling onto a supermassive black hole.

   The other bright points are either X-ray binaries (black holes or neutron stars pulling gas off of a normal star companion) or supermassive black holes in background galaxies.

   📷 https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/ngc3627/