Chandra observations of the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/9)

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 10-(a few) 100 M(circle dot) black hole counterparts. We detect an X-ray bright hot ISM, with features including bright superbubbles associated with the actively star-forming knots, regions where hot and warm (H alpha) ISM intermingle, and a large-scale outflow.