Chandra Release - March 8, 2023

Visual Description: 3C 297 

This release features a composite image of a lonely galaxy containing a supermassive black hole, two jets, and an X-ray hotspot, all surrounded by hot gas. Visually, the scene resembles colorful, out-of-focus points of light in a dark room, clouded with pockets of purple mist. Given the complexity of the image, it is presented both with and without labels.

 

Much of the image features blurry blue, purple, and orange dots against a black background. But the focus of this release is on the solo galaxy at our righthand side of the image, known as 3C 297. Layered atop the dotted black background, the solo galaxy resembles a disk of orange haze with a bright white dot at the center. The white dot is the location of the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core. The black hole pulls gas inwards, and drives the powerful jets of matter.  

 

Shooting from the orange haze toward our upper right, is a short, blurry, neon red line. This is a jet: a stream of particles blasting from the supermassive black hole inside the solo galaxy. At the end of the short red line is a second bright white dot, this one ringed in neon red. This is the X-ray hotspot, where matter from the jet has smashed into the purple gas cloud. 

 

A second jet emerges from the bottom of the hazy orange disk, and gently curves toward our lower right. This jet is also neon red but is considerably less vibrant. It presents as a sparse dotted line, rather than a solid one. Interactions with its surroundings have caused the jet to bend.

 

All of these elements, the solo galaxy, black hole, jets, and hotspot, are surrounded by the purple gas cloud. X-ray data from Chandra suggests this gas is present in very large quantities and is heated to millions of degrees Fahrenheit.