X-ray & Radio Images of the Cyg X-3's Little Friend
A snapshot of the life cycle of stars has been captured where a stellar nursery is reflecting X-rays from a source powered by an object at the endpoint of its evolution. These images show X-rays from Chandra and radio data from the Submillimeter Array. The bright source to the right is Cygnus X-3, an X-ray binary. The smaller object to the left is the Little Friend, a cloud of gas that is reflecting X-rays produced by Cygnus X-3. This configuration provides astronomers with a new way of studying how stars form.
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.McCollough et al, Radio: ASIAA/SAO/SMA)