The Whale Galaxy: NGC 4631 in Canes Venatici (x-ray view) | NASA Chandra

The Whale Galaxy: NGC 4631 in Canes Venatici (x-ray view) | NASA Chandra

A spiral galaxy viewed from its side, featuring a giant halo of hot gas blowing out of its stellar disk. X-rays from Chandra and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton (purple and royal blue) trace hot gas driven out by supernovas and black holes and neutron stars pulling gas from their companions, while optical light (light blue, gold and white) from ground-based observer R. Jay GaBany showcases dense dust lanes. Edge-on views of galaxies allow astronomers to study how flat their stellar disks are and provide the clearest views of material located above or below the disk.

Here, a profusion of starbirth lights up the galactic center, revealing bands of dark material between us and the starburst—a region of intense star formation. The galaxy’s activity tapers off  in its outer regions where there are fewer stars and less dust, but these are still punctuated by pockets of star formation.

The Whale Galaxy is about 30 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs) and is a spiral galaxy much like the Milky Way. From our vantage point, however, we see the Whale Galaxy edge-on, seeing its glowing center through dusty spiral arms. The galaxy's central bulge and asymmetric tapering disc have suggested the shape of a whale or a herring to past observers.

Many supernovae—the explosions of hot, blue, short-lived stars at least eight times the mass of the Sun—have gone off in the core of the Whale Galaxy. The stellar pyrotechnics have bathed the galaxy in hot gas visible to x-ray telescopes. 

From such work, the triggers of the starburst in the Whale Galaxy and others can be elucidated. The gravitational "feeding" on intergalactic material, as well as clumping caused by the gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbors, creates the areas of greater density where stars start to coalesce. Just as blue whales, the biggest creatures on Earth, can gorge themselves on comparatively tiny bits of plankton, so the Whale Galaxy has become filled with the gas and dust that powers a high rate of star formation.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: ©2011-2015 by R Jay GaBany

Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: Aug. 25, 2026

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