The galaxy NGC 3115 in Sextans in a composite image of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT)
Using the Chandra image, the flow of hot gas toward the supermassive black hole in the center of this galaxy has been imaged. The Chandra data are shown in blue and the optical data from the VLT are colored gold. The point sources in the X-ray image are mostly binary stars containing gas that is being pulled from a star to a stellar-mass black hole or a neutron star. The inset features the central portion of the Chandra image, with the black hole located in the middle.
NGC 3115 the nearest billion-solar-mass black hole to Earth. It's a lenticular galaxy about 32 million light years from Earth.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA, CXC, Univ. of Alabama, K. Wong et al; Optical: ESO, VLT