| Chandra
and Hubble Space Telescope images of two recently detected emitting globular
star clusters - so called because of their spherical shape - were used as
a cross-check to determine the position of X-ray sources near the center
of the Andromeda galaxy to an accuracy ten times greater than before. The
inset shows the three Chandra sources closest to the supermassive black
hole, overlaid with the intensity contours from the HST image (red). The
location of supermassive black hole is thought to be in the middle of the
peanut-shaped intensity contours, and very close to the Northern-most of
the three Chandra sources. |
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These
highly accurate positions show that the very cool X-ray source (blue) previously
identified with the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy
is actually about 10 light years south of the center. A second, hotter X-ray
source, is found to be at a position consistent with the position of the
super-massive black hole. The globular clusters are outside the field of
view in this image. |
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