NASA Telescope Spots Mystery in Fireworks Galaxy
September 4th, 2019
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This visible-light image of the Fireworks galaxy (NGC 6946) comes from the Digital Sky Survey and is overlaid with data from NASA's NuSTAR observatory (shown in blue and green). Blue light indicates X-rays captured during the first of two observations by NuSTAR, in May 2017. Green light indicates X-rays seen less than two weeks later in the second observation. This means that the source of the green spot to the lower left of the galactic center began radiating in the time between those two observations. Two bright sources near the top of the image show a combination of blue and green, indicating those sources were visible during both observations. The X-ray data don't have the same spatial resolution as the visible-light image, so the X-ray sources appear larger.

Observation

About the Object

Name
Fireworks GalaxyNGC 6946Arp 29
Type
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Distance
25,000,000 Light Years

Color Mapping

Band Wavelength Telescope
X-ray NuSTAR
X-ray NuSTAR

Astrometrics

Position (2000.0)
RA = 20h 34m 52.3s
Dec = 60° 9' 14.1"
Field of View
17.7 x 17.7 arcminutes
Orientation
North is up