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Intro music.

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A new era in stellar astronomy began five years ago when the Chandra X-ray Observatory first opened its sunshade to focus on former supernova Cassiopeia A.

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Sensitive to invisible x-ray light, Chandra can see the heat given off by massive stellar objects regardless of their distance.

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This ability to peer into the overwhelming darkness of space has revealed a hidden thermal universe previously veiled by the dominance of visible light.

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From the dark depths of space, Chandra has significantly elevated our understanding of black holes.

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Known for their ability to engulf everything around them, today we can measure a black hole's speed of spin,

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the limits of their gravitational influence and how many there are.

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Chandra has also been a window into galactic evolution.

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From its vantage view in space, the telescope observed a violent collision of the Antennae galaxies.

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Galactic collisions could promote the formation of new stars and planets, and be in our own distant future as

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the Milky Way slowly drifts toward the Andromeda Galaxy.

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Half a decade later, Chandra has once again returned to its origins to take another look at Cassiopeia A.

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The supernova remnant is a former star, having cast of its gaseous layer in a violent explosion.

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At 200 times the resolution of the original "first light" photos, the new images of Cassiopeia A

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reveal a torrent of clouds and molecular jets surrounding the object.

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On only its fifth birthday, the Chandra X-ray Observatory is celebrating a long list of discoveries that have forever changed how we see the universe.

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