The Bigger Picture: Visual Archives and the Smithsonian Today,
three new images of starbursts and colliding galaxies from the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray team were
uploaded to the Smithsonian's Flickr Commons stream. Check out
these colorful, shimmering beauties, millions of light years
away from Earth, in the slideshow below: Here's what Kim Kowal
Arcand, Multimedia Specialist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory's Chandra X-Ray Observatory had to say about the new
images: "One of the central quests of astronomy is to understand
how stars form, shine for billions of years, and eventually
die—sometimes in explosive deaths as supernovas. The Chandra
X-ray Observatory can focus on the high-energy action of this
drama in the remains of exploded star SNR 0509-67.5, in the
torrent of star formation in star-burst galaxy M82, or in the
Antennae colliding galaxies where supernova explosions are
enriching the intergalactic gas with elements that will be
incorporated into new generatio