
Chandra’s image of NGC 1700 shows a flattened oval of multi-million degree gas. Low-energy X-ray data reveals a giant inner disk 90,000 light years in diameter. An analysis shows that it is rotating and appears to be cooling. The existence of a large, rotating disk of hot gas suggests that NGC 1700 was created by the merger of a rotating spiral galaxy and an elliptical galaxy containing hot gas.
