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A group of criminal justice students at a small Atlanta college are preparing to launch their own investigation into the 2001 disappearance and slaying of Modesto resident Chandra Levy in Washington, D.C. Since 2005, students at Bauder College have sifted through old evidence and case files from unsolved crimes as part of the school's Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, according to institute director Sheryl McCollum. This year, Levy's homicide and the disappearance three years ago of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba are on their agenda.

Black holes are weird. Well, duh, right? But they do something that surprises most people: besides hoovering down almost everything nearby, they can also eject material as well. And by eject, I mean send it out screaming at nearly the speed of light and heated to a bazillion degrees. Picture from Chandra of the active galaxy pair 3C321 The image above is from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and it’s all about this scary scenario. Let’s take a walk down the gravity well, shall we? Basically, as matter swirls down into the maw of the hole, it forms a flattened disk...

Although he is no longer an FBI agent, Brad Garrett still visits the steep, wooded hillside in a Washington, D.C., park where the skeletal remains of Chandra Levy, a federal intern from Modesto, were found five years ago this week, a year after she disappeared. No one has been charged in the killing of the 24-year-old, whose disappearance generated enormous publicity after authorities revealed that she had been having a relationship with her married hometown congressman, Gary Condit. Condit was defeated in 2002 by his former aide, Dennis Cardoza. Read more at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/22/CHANDRA.TMP

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured the largest data set yet of Jupiter's colorful lights called aurora, yielding a pretty picture that could help solve some mysteries about the phenomenon. The phenomenon is similar to the Northern Lights seen on Earth, thought on a much larger scale. "Jupiter has auroras bigger than our entire planet," said Randy Gladstone of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. In a NASA statement today, Gladstone called the purple rings in a new colorized image "Northern Lights on steroids. They're hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth." Unlike Earth's auroras, Jupiter's...

Astronomers have found a black hole where few thought they could ever exist, inside a globular star cluster. The finding has broad implications for the dynamics of stars clusters and also for the existence of a still-speculative new class of black holes called 'intermediate-mass' black holes. The discovery is reported in the current issue of Nature. Tom Maccarone of the University of Southampton in England leads an international team on the finding, made primarily with the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite. Globular clusters are dense bundles of thousands to millions of old stars, and many scientists have doubted that black...

Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies. The discovery, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, gives direct evidence for the existence of dark matter. "This is the most energetic cosmic event, besides the Big Bang, which we know about," said team member Maxim Markevitch of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. These observations provide the strongest evidence yet that most of the matter in the universe is dark. Despite considerable evidence for dark matter, some scientists have proposed alternative theories for gravity where it...

NASA Announces Dark Matter DiscoveryAstronomers who used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 21, to announce how dark and normal matter have been forced apart in an extraordinarily energetic collision. Reporters must call Megan Watzke at the Chandra Press Office at: 617- 496-7998 or e-mail: mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu for participation information. Shortly before the start of the briefing, images and graphics about the research will be posted at: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/1e0657/Briefing participants: - Maxim Markevitch, astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. - Doug Clowe, postdoctoral fellow, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. - Sean Carroll,...

WASHINGTON - With gasoline hitting $3 per gallon, scientists have just found the most energy-efficient engines in the universe — black holes, those whirling super-dense centers of galaxies that suck in nearly everything. The jets of energy spurting out of older ultra-efficient black holes also seem to be playing a crucial role as zoning cops in large galaxies, preventing too many stars from sprouting. That explains why there aren't as many burgeoning galaxies chock full of stars as previously expected, said scientists citing results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory that were released Monday. For the first time, scientists measured both...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dozens of massive stars, destined for a short but brilliant life, were born less than a light-year away from the Milky Way's central black hole, one of the most hostile environments in our galaxy, astronomers reported on Thursday. On Earth, this might be a bit like setting up a maternity ward on the side of an active volcano. But researchers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other instruments believe there is a safe zone around black holes, a big dust ring where stars can form. Black holes, including the one at the center of our galaxy, are...

The real fact It's amazing how Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose continues to be in news 60 years after his disputed death. In a way, this has been in defiance of successive Indian governments who would rather the people sidelined him as they did. A recent BBC online poll put named Bose the third greatest-ever leader in South Asia after Jinnha and Gandhi. Strikingly, as per the same poll, the stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and the inimitable Atal Bihari Vajpayee don't even blip on the radar anymore. The coming months will see Subhas making a comeback of a sort....

What about the recall race? After serious contemplation, it is clear that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the strongest candidate for governor. All Republicans should unite behind his candidacy to end the Gray Davis-Cruz Bustamante regime.

The early sun produced powerful x-ray emissions that may have helped to ensure the survival of our planet, scientists say. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest that violent x-ray flares, which reached temperatures of 100 million kelvins, may have rocked the surrounding disk from which planets formed and prevented Earth from rapidly spiraling into the sun and being destroyed. An international team of astronomers focused Chandra on the Orion Nebula for 13 days, resulting in one of the instrument's deepest observations yet. Located 1,500 light-years from Earth, the Orion Nebula provides a way for scientists to study how our...

LOS ANGELES - Solar flares are infamous for wreaking havoc on electrical power lines and communication signals. But a team of astronomers says bursts emitted by the sun in its youth may have helped planets form. Looking through NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the astronomers focused on a cluster of young stars in the Orion Nebula, 1,500 light years from Earth. Studying 30 sun-like stars over two weeks, they found the young stars erupted in flares more powerful than those produced by the sun. The observation could explain how Earth survived during its formative years, astronomers said. Half the stars in...

On January 18 Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, told a placard-waving anti-war crowd: "The greatest patriots of this country are here today...The president said it'd be a cold day in Washington before this country turns against this war, but it is a cold day in Washington and here we are." Apart from Conyers nasty insinuation people who disagree with his leftwing views about war against the genocidal Saddam are not patriotic, what can we deduce from his presence? Well, for one, Rep. does not like America and prefers the company of totalitarians to that of genuine democrats. And how...

Dark Matter Halo Puzzles Astronomers Summary - (Oct 26, 2004) Astronomers using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory have discovered a huge halo of dark matter around an isolated elliptical galaxy; an object that shouldn't have such a halo, according to optical observations. The galaxy, NGC 4555, is unusual that it's a large elliptical galaxy which isn't part of a larger cluster of galaxies. It's surrounded by a cloud of gas, twice the size of the galaxy itself, that's been heated to 10-million-degrees Celsius. This gas could only get that hot if it was being constrained by a halo of dark matter...

Joe S is engaging in fear mongering regarding the deficit. He just said that W took a record surplus (no mention that the surplus was an illusion brought on by the bubble economy) and turned it into record deficits. He is unmistakably trying to drive done W's support with his base. Now he has Buchanan on making the anti-Republican case too. Scarborough is such a nut. One minute he praises reagan (who had larger deficits than Bush does) and then he lights into Bush. This is insane. He is an incoherent jerk.

This image shows Cassiopeia A in the most detailed image ever made of the remains of an exploded star. The colors represent different ranges of X-rays with red, green, and blue representing, low, medium, and higher X-ray energies of the supernova remnant. The one million second image shows a bright outer ring (green) ten light years in diameter that marks the location of a shock wave generated by the supernova explosion. A large jet-like structure that protrudes beyond the shock wave can be seen in the upper left. Chandra was launched July 23, 1999, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. The...

Dark energy. Does it exist, and what are its properties? Using galaxy-cluster images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have applied a powerful, new method for detecting and probing dark energy. The results offer intriguing clues about the nature of dark energy and the fate of the Universe. The Marshall Center manages the Chandra program. Astronomers have detected and probed dark energy by applying a powerful, new method that uses images of galaxy clusters made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The results trace the transition of the expansion of the Universe from a decelerating to an accelerating phase several billion...

For the second time in three months, scientists confirm that the universe is expanding at an ever faster rate thanks to a mysterious repulsive force called "dark energy" that counters gravity. The findings this time come from observations of the orbiting U.S. Chandra x-ray telescope. The latest batch of findings would probably have made renowned German physicist Albert Einstein exuberant were he still alive. He died in 1955 believing he had made a serious error in devising a concept he called the cosmological constant. He had created the notion in 1917 to explain why the universe did not collapse from...

Condit Sues Over Chandra Levy Articles Saturday December 20, 2003 2:46 AM By JILL BARTON Associated Press Writer WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Former Rep. Gary Condit sued The National Enquirer and other tabloids for $209 million on Friday, alleging they falsely connected him with the 2001 murder of federal intern Chandra Levy. The California Democrat alleges that the Enquirer, Globe and Star Magazine tabloids, along with parent company American Media Inc., maliciously published defamatory statements that Condit ``was involved in deviant and perverted sexual conduct, which directly or indirectly led to the kidnapping and/or murder of Ms. Levy,''...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - For the first time ever, astronomers have detected sound waves coming from a massive black hole in space -- and believe the discovery may help resolve a major mystery, the US space agency said. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the Chandra X-ray Observatory had monitored for 53 hours noise coming from the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster. The pitch of the sound waves, equivalent to a B-flat -- 57 octaves lower than a middle-C and at a frequency far deeper than the limits of human hearing -- is the deepest note ever detected...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 August 21 X-Rays from M17 Credit: L. Townsley (PSU) et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: About 5,000 light-years away, toward the constellation Sagittarius and the center of our galaxy, lies the bright star forming region cataloged as M17. In visible light, M17's bowed and hollowed-out appearance has resulted in many popular names like the Horseshoe, Swan, Omega, and Lobster nebula. But what has sculpted this glowing gas cloud?...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 July 12 X-Ray Milky Way Credit: D. Wang (UMass) et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: If you had x-ray vision, the center regions of our Galaxy would not be hidden from view by the immense cosmic dust clouds opaque to visible light. Instead, the Milky Way toward Sagittarius might look something like this stunning mosaic of images from the orbiting Chandra Observatory. Pleasing to look at, the gorgeous...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 July 11 NGC 1068 and the X-Ray Flashlight Credit: X-ray: P. Ogle (UCSB) et al.; Optical: A.Capetti (INAF) et al.; CXO, STScI, NASA Explanation: At night, tilting a flashlight up under your chin hides the glowing bulb from the direct view of your friends. Light from the bulb still reflects from your face though, and can give you a startling appearance. Spiral Galaxy NGC 1068 may be...

<p>Read the death notice posted by Chandra's family or post in the guest book.</p> <p>Chandra Levy's remains were laid to rest at Lakewood Memorial Park on Tuesday, in a private ceremony attended by family and investigators who still hope to solve her murder.</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 14 DEM L71: When Small Stars Explode Credit: J. Hughes, P. Ghavamian and C. Rakowski (Rutgers Univ.) et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: Large, massive stars end their furious lives in spectacular supernova explosions -- but small, low mass stars may encounter a similar fate. In fact, instead of simply cooling off and quietly fading away, some white dwarf stars in binary star systems are thought to...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 14 The Heart in NGC 346 Credit: Y.Nazé (Université de Liège) et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: Yes, it's Valentine's Day (!) and looking toward star cluster NGC 346 in our neighboring galaxy the Small Magellanic Cloud, astronomers have noted this heart-shaped cloud of hot, x-ray emitting gas in the cluster's central region. The false-color Chandra Observatory x-ray image also shows a strong x-ray source just above...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 6 X-Rays from M83 Credit: R.Soria & K.Wu (MSSL, UCL) CXC, NASA Explanation: Bright and beautiful spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years from Earth, toward the headstrong constellation Hydra. Sweeping spiral arms, prominent in visible light images, lend this galaxy its popular moniker -- the Southern Pinwheel. In fact, the spiral arms are still apparent in this Chandra Observatory false-color x-ray image of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 16 NGC 1700: Elliptical Galaxy and Rotating Disk Credit: Thomas S. Statler, Brian R. McNamara (Ohio Univ.), CXC, NASA Explanation: In spiral galaxies, majestic winding arms of young stars and interstellar gas and dust rotate in a disk around a bulging galactic nucleus. Elliptical galaxies seem to be simpler, randomly swarming with old stars and lacking gas and dust. So astronomers were excited to find that...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 8 X-Rays from the Galactic Core Credit: Fred Baganoff (MIT), Mark Morris (UCLA), et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: Using the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have taken this long look at the core of our Milky Way galaxy, some 26,000 light-years away. The spectacular false-color view spans about 130 light-years. It reveals an energetic region rich in x-ray sources and high-lighted by the central source, Sagittarius...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 27 X-Ray Mystery in RCW 38Credit: S. Wolk (CfA), et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: A mere 6,000 light-years distant and sailing through the constellation Vela, star cluster RCW 38 is full of powerful stars. It's no surprise that these stars, only a million years young with hot outer atmospheres, appear as point-like x-ray sources dotting this x-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory. But the diffuse...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 28 The Supermassive Black Holes of NGC 6240 Credit: Optical: R.P.van der Marel & J.Gerssen (STScI), NASA;X-ray: S.Komossa & G.Hasinger (MPE) et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: The Hubble optical image on the left shows NGC 6240 in the throes of a titanic galaxy - galaxy collision 400 million light-years away. As the cosmic catastrophe plays out, the merging galaxies spew forth distorted tidal tails of stars,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 26 Dark Matter, X-rays, and NGC 720 Credit: D. Buote (UC Irvine) et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: Elliptical galaxy NGC 720 is enveloped in a cosmic cloud of x-ray emitting gas. Seen in this false color image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the extreme temperature of the gas - about 7 million degrees Celsius - makes it impossible to confine the cloud to the vicinity of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 12 Chandra Deep Field Credit: Riccardo Giacconi et al., JHU, AUI, NASA Explanation: Officially the Chandra Deep Field - South, this picture represents the deepest ever x-ray image of the Universe. One million seconds of accumulated exposure time with the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory went in to its making. Concentrating on a single, otherwise unremarkable patch of sky in the constellation Fornax, this x-ray image corresponds...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 8 The X-Ray Jets of XTE J1550 Image Credit: CXC, NASA; Illustration Credit: M. Weiss (CXC) Explanation: The motion of ultra-fast jets shooting out from a candidate black hole star system have now been documented by observations from the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. In 1998, X-ray source XTE J1550-564 underwent a tremendous outburst. Jets of material sent streaming into space at near light-speed impacted existing gas...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 5 X-Ray Cygnus A Credit: A. Wilson & A. Young (UMD), P. Shopbell (Caltech), CXC, NASA(Inset Credit: NRAO) Explanation: Amazingly detailed, this false-color x-ray image is centered on the galaxy Cygnus A. Recorded by the orbiting Chandra Observatory, Cygnus A is seen here as a spectacular high energy x-ray source. But it is actually more famous at the low energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum as...

Police are looking at a man who attacked two joggers in Washington, D.C. in the same area where Chandra was found. The man initially passed a polygraph which police now believe was flawed due to language problems. The suspect is currently in jail for attacking two women.

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 28 X-Ray Rainbows Credit: J. McClintock et al. (CfA), CXC, NASA Explanation: A drop of water or prism of glass can spread out visible sunlight into a rainbow of colors. In order of increasing energy, the well known spectrum of colors in a rainbow runs red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. X-ray light too can be spread out into a spectrum ordered by energy ......

Stunning New View of Energetic Crab Pulsar Fri Sep 20, 9:24 AM ET By SPACE.com Staff, SPACE.com Combining the power of the Hubble Space Telescope ( news - web sites) with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers have made a short movie of a massive rotating star that provides new clues about how the powerful object works. Scientists gathered data at different times over several months with the two orbiting observatories, examining the so-called Crab Nebula and its dense, Manhattan-sized pulsing neutron star. The rapidly spinning star generates incredible pulses of magnetic energy that scientists still struggle to understand. "Through...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 20 The Crab Nebula Pulsar Shrugs Credit: J. Hester (ASU), CXC, HST, NOAO, NSF, NASA Explanation: How does a city-sized neutron star power the vast Crab Nebula? The expulsion of wisps of hot gas at high speeds appears to be at least part of the answer. Yesterday time-lapse movies taken from both the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope were released showing a wisp...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 12 X-Rays From Tycho's Supernova Remnant Credit: SAO, CXC, NASA Explanation: In 1572, Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe recorded the sudden appearance of a bright new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. The new star faded from view over a period of months and is believed to have been a supernova, one of the last stellar explosions seen in our Milky Way galaxy. Now known as Tycho's Supernova...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 24 Cas A Supernova Remnant in X-Rays Credit: John Hughes et al. (Rutgers), NASA / CXC / SAO Explanation: The complex shell of a star seen to explode 300 years ago is helping astronomers to understand how that star exploded. This Chandra Observatory image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) shows unprecedented detail in three x-ray colors. The relationship between brightness, color, and position of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 25 NGC 1569: Heavy Elements from a Small Galaxy Credit: C.Martin (UCSB / Caltech), et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: For astronomers, elements other than hydrogen and helium are sometimes considered to be simply "heavy elements". It's understandable really, because even lumped all together heavy elements make up an exceedingly small fraction of the Universe. Still, heavy elements can profoundly influence galaxy and star formation ... not...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Three forensics experts have joined the investigation into the death of Chandra Levy, a Levy family lawyer announced Friday.</p> <p>"The family has a right to either know what was done was done properly, or to confirm what was done. We're asking for a second opinion," said lawyer Billy Martin.</p>

Chandra May Have Been Strangled, Medical Examiner Says AP Chandra Levy Saturday, July 13, 2002 WASHINGTON — Murdered Washington D.C. intern Chandra Levy may have been strangled to death, the chief medical examiner there said Saturday. AP In a report published by The Washington Post online, Jonathan Arden said that one of Levy's upper-neck bones had been damaged but not broken. Still, he said, there wasn't sufficient evidence to confirm that the young woman had definitely died by strangulation. Levy had been missing for a little more than one year when her remains were found in D.C.'s Rock Creek Park...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 11 M51: X-Rays from the Whirlpool Credit: A. Wilson (UMD) et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: Fresh from yesterday's episode, a popular pair of interacting galaxies known as the Whirlpool debut here beyond the realm of visible light -- imaged at high energies by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. Still turning in a remarkable performance, over 80 glitering x-ray stars are present in the Chandra image data...

U.S. Park Police and D.C. police are investigating whether law enforcement personnel are responsible for vandalism at the Rock Creek Park site where Chandra Levy's remains were found, authorities said yesterday. The vandalism occurred during the past three weeks while the site was closed to the public and police maintained a 24-hour watch of the area.Hit link for balance of story.

He was having an adulterous affair with Chandra Levy. According to her friend Sven Jones, Chandra was pressuring Condit into leaving his wife Carolyn, and marrying her. Now more mistresses have come forward with the rule Chandra revealed to her aunt. She was not allowed to carry ID with her when she went out on a date with Condit. Condit's wife gets migraine headaches at time that are often triggered by high altitude airline flights, so she tries to avoid flying. It had been a year since Carolyn Condit flew to Washington. She flies to Washington on April 28th, and ...

Washington (AP) - The private investigator who found Chandra Levy's leg bone earlier this month says he's insulted by a police request to submit to a polygraph test. Joe McCann is a former DC homicide detective who was hired by Levy attorney Billy Martin. McCann found the bone on June 6th, a week after police finished their search of Rock Creek Park. The Washington Post reports sources familiar with the incident say police also seemed to question McCann's story. DC Police Chief Charles Ramsey says it's standard procedure in major cases to ask witnesses with crucial information to take a...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 17 NGC 4697: X-Rays from an Elliptical Galaxy Credit : C. Sarazin (UVa), et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: The many bright, point-like sources in this Chandra Observatory x-ray image lie within NGC 4697, an elliptical galaxy some 40 million light-years away towards Virgo. Like other normal elliptical galaxies, NGC 4697 is a spherical ensemble of mainly older, fainter, low mass stars, with little star forming gas...