Chandra Release - January 27, 2009

Visual Description: NGC 604

This is an image of NGC 604, the largest region of star formation in the nearby galaxy M33. This composite image from Chandra X-ray Observatory data (colored blue), combined with optical light data from the Hubble Space Telescope (colored red and dark gold), shows a divided neighborhood where some 200 hot, young, massive stars reside.  The predominant color in the image is the bright blue hue. These clouds of gas appear soft and delicate, resembling fluffy blue cotton balls floating in space.  Other areas of the image appear darker than the blue clouds and have dramatic red and gold filamentary-like bubbles, formed in a very irregular patchwork quilt. Bright golden spots are sprinkled across, mostly towards the center.  Throughout this cosmic metropolis, giant bubbles in the cool dust and warm gas are filled with diffuse, multi-million degree gas that emits X-rays. On the western (right) side of this region, the amount of hot gas found in the bubbles corresponds to about 4300 times the mass of the sun. This value and the brightness of the gas in X-rays imply that the western part of NGC 604 is entirely powered by winds from the 200 hot massive stars.