NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory has allowed astronomers to identify objects in faraway galaxies that could answer some serious questions about the universe. <\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/h2>\n
Chandra is NASA\u2019s space telescope specifically used for identifying X-ray light<\/strong>, and is called one of the \u201cGreat Observatories\u201d that NASA has created, alongside the famous Hubble Telescope. <\/p>\n Where it differs from normal telescopes is in its location: it lives not here on Earth, but out in space, launched on 23 July 1999 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.<\/p>\n Why is it in space? <\/p>\n Well, because the Earth\u2019s atmosphere blocks most X-rays<\/strong>, the telescope has to work from outside Earth to be able to detect these X-rays. So it stays out there, studying hot, energetic objects such as exploded stars, black holes, neutron stars, and hot gas in galaxies. <\/p>\n But if the telescope has been up in space for so long, how has this new discovery been hiding in plain sight? <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A team led by Mustafa Muhibullah at the University of Alabama had an idea to look again at old data, to see if they had missed anything in the years before. <\/p>\n This idea came from the fact that astronomers seem to ignore or discard certain data. Mainly the lowest-energy X-rays because at this energy, the detectors they use do not respond very well<\/strong> and are often shaky. <\/p>\n But astronomers at the University of Alabama decided it was worth investigating these types of low-energy channels instead of simply ignoring them. <\/p>\n So a team started searching NASA Chandra<\/a>‘s public archive, focusing mainly on the Andromeda galaxy, our closest large neighbor galaxy, and 5 others, to look for these faint images. <\/p>\n It was suspected that bright ultraviolet objects could be hidden by the gas between stars, and that their soft X-rays could reveal them. <\/p>\n So they started looking for points of light that shone in the faintest shots and then disappeared in the stronger ones.<\/strong><\/p>\n What they found was utterly unexpected.<\/p>\n Not just a few, but dozens of objects<\/strong> matched this pattern! The search led by Mustafa Muhibullah of six nearby galaxies showed a vast number of objects that were almost all previously unknown.<\/p>\n They found objects in busy areas where new stars form, and in quieter areas full of older stars. How had they never seen them before?<\/p>\n The answer lies in their faintness: for X-rays to catch such soft light is extremely difficult. There is a lot of hydrogen and helium gas around them, which actually absorbs the light that they give off. <\/p>\n And so, a great 84 X-ray sources<\/strong> were found that have been hidden from us for so many years. These types of discoveries can rewrite what scientists believe<\/a> about the universe. <\/p>\n Their presence is not the only shock; Scientists also think they emit strong ultraviolet radiation, which can strip electrons from the gas between stars. This process remains only a possibility, as it has not been studied properly yet. <\/p>\n So these 84 X-ray sources found in six galaxies give off very faint X-ray energy but appear to put out a great deal of ultraviolet light. This could have an effect on the stars around them, and further study needs to be done to prove this. This discovery is a great reminder that old archives can still surprise us, just like these old radio recordings<\/a> that were analysed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you think we know everything about the universe, you couldn’t be more wrong. Astronomers are finding mind-blowing facts about the universe all the time and discovering things they have never seen before, even in galaxies that are widely studied. NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory has allowed astronomers to identify objects in faraway galaxies that could … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":44993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_focus_keyword":"NASA,X-ray sources","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_description":"Old NASA Chandra archives have been studied to reveal a complete new discovery about the universe, that has been sitting here on Earth for years.","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44991"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45068,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44991\/revisions\/45068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/INFG-NASAs-Chandra-detects-84-unusually-low-energy-X-ray-sources-across-six-galaxies-potentially-affecting-the-gas-surrounding-them-150x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nHow this new discovery was found<\/h2>\n
Muhibullah and his team have never seen objects act this way<\/h2>\n