HEAPOW logo


XMM mosaic of M33
Credit: Image courtesy of W. Pietsch, MPE Garching, Germany and ESA


A Neighbor's X-ray

M33 is one of the members of the "Local Group", a neighbor of the Milky Way and a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way's big neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. X-ray observations of M33 can be used to identify locations of dead stars. The image above is a raster scan of M33 in X-rays, obtained by the XMM-Newton X-ray satellite observatory. This observation shows the population of X-ray emitting objects in M33, and is about a factor of 10 deeper than the previous best observation. XMM-Newton identifies 21 X-ray emitting super nova remnants, and 23 remnant candidates in M33, along with 5 "super-soft" sources and 2 X-ray binaries.


Last Week * HEA Dictionary * Archive * Search HEAPOW * Education



Each week the HEASARC brings you new, exciting and beautiful images from X-ray and Gamma ray astronomy. Check back each week and be sure to check out the HEAPOW archive!


Page Author: Dr. Michael F. Corcoran
Last modified Tuesday, 27-Feb-2024 10:06:45 EST