X-ray Images of M31's Core
Twenty-six black hole candidates  - the largest number found in a galaxy outside our own - have been discovered in the Milky Way's galactic neighbor, Andromeda. Using over 150 Chandra observations spread over 13 years, researchers identified the bonanza of stellar-mass black holes, that is, those that form from the collapse of a giant star and typically have masses between five and ten times that of the Sun. These images show the Chandra view of the central region of Andromeda, also known as M31. It is expected that billions of years in the future, the Milky Way and Andromeda will collide and many more black holes will be created.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/R.Barnard, Z.Lee et al.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/m31/more.html">https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/m31/more.html</a> (cropped), inset of <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M31_before.tif" title="File:M31 before.tif">File:M31_before.tif</a>, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M31_after.tif" title="File:M31 after.tif">File:M31_after.tif</a>