Chandra Observatory

@atumparra You can download the full resolution TIF on this page: chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/spr… and have the image printed out in whatever size you want at your favorite print shop. 😁

i want this on a canvas on my wall

Visual Description: In this composite image of the Cat's Paw Nebula, pockets of starry blue sky appear behind thick, overlapping rings of dark orange cloud. At the center of the image, tucked amongst the clouds, is a mottled patch of purple.

Spring into spring with this new image of the Cat's Paw Nebula from NASA's Chandra and @NASAWebb. We expect it to start knocking planets off the counter for sport any minute now. 🐾

Astronomers have spotted an extreme collision between two neutron stars in a very odd place about 4.7 billion light-years from Earth. This result may help answer two different mysteries about stars and intergalactic space. More at: chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/nsm…

Chandra doesn’t just study black holes — it also reveals new details across our solar system. This sonification blends X-rays from @chandraxray with a Cassini image of Saturn, turning data into sound. 🪐 Check out more planetary sonifications here: go.nasa.gov/4bb0cpP

@JulianUnlocked @NASAHubble Listen for the dip over the Great Red Spot!

@chandraxray @NASAHubble This rules. Jupiter as a horror movie soundtrack, but it’s real data. What’s the “big moment” to listen for, aurora spikes, flares, or something else?

Listen your way across Jupiter with this new sonification combining data from Chandra and @NASAHubble. Want to know more about it? Check out the description below 👇

Video Description: At the center of the image is the gas giant itself; a seemingly perfect sphere with an atmosphere of latitudinal bands. The bands are different shades of grey, brown, and black, each with its own texture and width. Flanking Jupiter are neon pink and white clouds, representing X-rays from energetic particles in a ring around the planet. In the video, an activation line moves from our left to right. As the activation line sweeps across the image, it encounters visual elements. These elements are translated into sound, or sonified, according to parameters established by Chandra's sonification team. The line first encounters a pink cloud, triggering whooshing woodwinds. When the activation line encounters Jupiter, dramatic low notes are triggered. Listen for the dip as the line passes over the Great Red Spot in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. The activation line continues toward our right, passing more pink X-ray clouds. The largest cloud, the last one encountered, has a bright white core, which translates to loud gusty woodwinds.

Sonification allows scientists and individuals to use their sense of hearing to interpret and analyze complex datasets. Unlike traditional data visualization techniques, such as translating inherently digital data (in the form of ones and zeroes) captured by telescopes in space into images, data sonification provides an auditory representation of data, offering a unique and complementary perspective on the information being studied. User testing with different audiences — from students to adults, and particularly blind or low vision participants — demonstrated high learning gains, enjoyment, a desire to know or learn more, as well as strong emotional responses to the data.   Sonifications expand options for people to explore what telescopes discover in space, an example of NASA’s ongoing commitment to share its data as widely as possible.

@chandraxray What is the purpose of this sonification?

Peaking on February 28th in the Northern Hemisphere, six planets will all be visible from clear & dark night skies. In celebration of this planetary group project, Chandra is releasing three new planetary sonifications. Experience the data-driven sounds of Uranus:

@RhoddryIce The X-rays detected by Chandra come from the Sun and are reflected. 😁

@chandraxray Why does the rings emit X-rays? Reflecting high energy particles from the sun or created by Uranus magnetic field or is there another explanation?

Video Description: A composite image of the planet Uranus appears on screen. The icy giant is a greenish-blue cyan color, with a blush of neon pink X-rays hovering over its core. Uranus has a collection of very narrow rings, much finer than the wide disk-like rings surrounding Saturn. In this image, the fine rings are near vertical and slightly tilted, creating an oval shape with rounded points at our lower left and upper right. In this sonification, the activation line moves from our left to right. Brightness is mapped to volume and height is mapped to pitch, such that brighter objects at the top of the image sound louder and higher. Here, the curved oval shape of the rings is conveyed as a swooping cello note, with the pitch sliding up as the activation line passes the oval tilted toward our upper right.

This image shows the first "astrosphere" surrounding a Sun-like star younger than our Sun. This new discovery gives us a chance to study the structure our own Sun may have been embedded in several billion years ago. More at: s.si.edu/astrosphere ⭐

@GzUpXX We see it too! 🐎😁

@chandraxray How cute! Looks like a horse in the center! 🐎 🫶🏻

Behold, the heart‑shaped Cocoon Nebula — because even the universe can get a little dramatic about Valentine's Day. Nothing says “I love you” quite like a giant cloud of hot gas. If you need it, it'll be out there glowing majestically roughly 2,650 light-years from Earth.💘✨

Time to battle it out! 🏈 Vote for your favorite set of @chandraxray images as we prepare for #SBLX!

Who’s in your #NASAMoonCrew? 🫵 Crews bring together the right mix of skills to make missions happen! Just like the Artemis II crew working together on their journey around the Moon, NASA’s space telescopes use their different strengths to observe the universe. Your turn: Tell @NASA who you’d bring on a journey around the Moon! Details here: go.nasa.gov/4k6J1JX

A new discovery made using both @NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory & @NASAWebb shows that galaxy clusters may have started forming earlier in the universe than previously thought — one or two billion years earlier than previously thought possible! More at: s.si.edu/protoc

@twin_star11 You can read more about it here: chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/csc/ 😁

@chandraxray Well composed ⭐ One significant post from space 🌌 holds more weightage than generalized ones. I have to read about it more.

Curious what 22 years of Chandra observations sound like? This sonification includes every Chandra observation from 1999 - 2021. 🎵