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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Hot plasma and black hole binaries in starburst galaxy M82
R E Griffiths1, A Ptak, E D Feigelson
1Department of Physics, Wean Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, USA. griffith@astro.phys.cmu.edu
Abstract:
High-resolution x-ray observations of the prototype starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82) obtained with the advanced CCD (charge-coupled device) imaging spectrometer on board the Chandra X-ray Observatory provide a detailed view of hot plasma and energetic processes. Plasma with temperature of about 40,000,000 kelvin fills the inner 1 kiloparsec, which is much hotter than the 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 kelvin interstellar medium component in the Milky Way Galaxy. Produced by many supernova explosions, this central region is overpressurized and drives M82's prominent galactic wind into the intergalactic medium. We also resolved about 20 compact x-ray sources, many of which could be high-mass x-ray binary star systems containing black holes.
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