Jun 6 2001
From The Space Library
NASA announced several new findings made possible by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Farhad Zadeh of Northwestern University had used Chandra to locate “a cauldron of 60 million degree gas enveloping a cluster of young stars.” The discovery marked the first time that scientists had located such high-energy x-rays surrounding young stars. Zadeh also noted that the newly discovered cluster, located some 25,000 light-years from Earth and estimated at 1 to 2 million years old, had provided evidence in support of the theory that stellar winds generated by stars can produce very hot gas. In addition to Zadeh’s find, Andreas Zezas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced that his team of scientists had found new midmass black holes in several starburst galaxies~ regions where stars form and explode frequently. Researchers had long hypothesized that such an environment might exist but had previously been able to locate only a few midmass black holes. Zezas credited the powerful Chandra X-ray Observatory with allowing astronomers to examine far-flung galaxies more closely than before. Kimberly A. Weaver of NASA’s GSFC, who had contributed to Zezas’s project, hypothesized that the concentration of midsize black holes could possibly lead eventually to the formation of a single, massive black hole. (NASA, “Star Factory near Galactic Center Bathed in High-Energy X-rays,” news release 01-113, 6 June 2001; John Noble Wilford, “Hot Stellar Winds Captured by X-ray Orbiter,” New York Times, 12 June 2001; NASA, “Chandra Sees Wealth of Black Holes in Star-Forming Galaxies,” news release 01-110, 6 June 2001.)
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