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M 101 Combined X-Ray and Optical Image

Image

Minimum credit line: Image courtesy of Rosemary Willatt (ESAC) and ESA. (for details, see Conditions of Use).
Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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About this Image

The image shows an XMM-Newton EPIC image (colour) overlayed onto an optical Digitised Sky Survey image of the spiral galaxy M101 (greyscale). The XMM-Newton image comprises data from the MOS and pn cameras, and is false coloured as follows: low energy (0.2-1.0 keV) photons are shown in red, medium energy (1.0-2.0 keV) in green, and high energy (2.0-12 keV) in blue. The Digitised Sky Survey image of the galaxy was taken in the blue optical band and has been displayed in inverted greyscale (areas of emission are seen as black against a white background) so that the X-ray image can be seen through it.
The combined image shows correpondence in the spiral arms between X-ray and optical emission. The nucleus is also clearly seen in the X-ray particularly the circumnuclear region in the low energy emission.

Investigator(s):  M. Watson and K. Kuntz

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