Chandra Observations of “The Antennae” Galaxies (NGC 4038/9)

Abstract

We report the results of a deep Chandra ACIS pointing at the merging system NGC 4038/9. We detect an extraordinarily luminous population of X-ray sources, with luminosity well above that of XRBs in M31 and the Milky Way. If these sources are unbeamed XRBs, our observations may point to them being 10È(a black hole counterparts. We detect an X-ray bright hot ISM, with features few)100 M _ including bright superbubbles associated with the actively star-forming knots, regions where hot and warm (Ha) ISM intermingle, and a large-scale outÑow.