NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has reached a remarkable milestone, now cataloging over 1.3 million X-ray detections across the universe. This significant achievement is captured in the latest version of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC), which includes data up to the end of 2020. The CSC serves as a critical resource for astronomers, allowing them to explore cosmic phenomena in unprecedented detail.
Details of the Chandra Source Catalog
The current version of the CSC, referred to as CSC 2.1, encompasses more than 400,000 unique compact and extended sources. These observations are essential for understanding various astronomical events and structures. The catalog provides precise positional data and information about the X-ray energies detected, enabling scientists to integrate Chandra’s unique findings with observations from other telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.
A recent illustration of the catalog’s richness comes from a new image of the Galactic Center, home to the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*. This image, which spans approximately 60 light-years, showcases over 3,300 individual X-ray emitting sources detected by Chandra. The image itself is a culmination of 86 observations, totaling over three million seconds of observation time.
Innovative Representations of Cosmic Data
To further present the expansive data available, a new sonification has been released. This innovative project translates astronomical data into sound, offering a unique auditory experience of the sky mapped from 22 years of Chandra observations. The sonification encapsulates the numerous X-ray sources observed multiple times, each represented by different notes, creating a dynamic auditory landscape of cosmic activity.
The visualization projects the sky in a way akin to world maps, with the core of the Milky Way at its center and the Galactic plane horizontally across the middle. Each detection is represented by a circle, with the size indicating the frequency of observations at that location. A year counter at the top of the frame illustrates the timeline of observations, concluding with the phrase “… and beyond” to signify Chandra’s ongoing operations.
For those interested in exploring this vast trove of data, the most recent version of the Chandra Source Catalog can be accessed at https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/csc/. This resource stands as a testament to the ongoing contributions of the Chandra X-ray Observatory to our understanding of the universe.
