During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned.

Real-time procedures were executed during each ground contact to reset the DSN Outage Dead Man Load.

A Chandra image release was issued on Jan 8 describing Chandra observations of J1818.0-1607, the fastest spinning and possibly the youngest magnetar currently known. Magnetars are a type of neutron star (a dense remnant originating from the collapsed core of a massive star during a supernova) characterized by the most powerful known magnetic fields in the Universe. Magnetars are rare -- only about 1% of identified neutron stars are magnetars. The Chandra data revealed a point source where the magnetar was located, which is surrounded by diffuse X-ray emission, likely caused by X-rays reflecting off dust located in its vicinity. For details, see: https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2021/j1818/

Chandra press and image releases were issued on Jan 14 featuring a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other telescopes that reveals what happens to the black holes in galaxy cores following galaxy collisions. This work expands earlier work on two-galaxy mergers to triple mergers. Of seven triple galaxy mergers studied, there is one with a single growing supermassive black hole, four with double growing supermassive black holes, and one that is a triple. The final triple merger studied shows no X-ray emission detected from the supermassive black holes. Studies of triple mergers can help us understand whether pairs of supermassive black holes can approach so close to each other that they make ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves; the energy lost to these waves will cause the black holes to merge. For details, see: https://chandra.harvard.edu/press/21_releases/press_011421.html

The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below and includes an observation of ESO253-G003, which is a follow-up to a Director's Discretionary Time Target of Opportunity accepted on Nov 18, 2020, an observation of V404Cygni coordinated with VLA, an observation of GW170817 coordinated with VLA, and an observation of IGRJ16318-4848 coordinated with NuSTAR.