chandra x-ray imaging of ngc 1553 show diffuse hot gas making up 70% of the emissions, dotted with many point-like sources (low-mass x-ray binaries) making up the rest. similarly to ngc 4697 and messier 60, these bright spots are due to binary star systems of black holes and neutron stars most of which are located in globular clusters and reflect this old galaxy's very active past. in these systems, material pulled off a regular star is heated and gives off x-rays as it falls toward the accompanying black hole or neutron star. the brightest of the point sources is coincident with the galaxy's optical nucleus. its luminosity and spectrum suggest its being an obscured central active galactic nucleus (agn). this source is visible in the center of the x-ray image of ngc 1553 shown above.