Hubble Space Telescope observes a lot of galaxies. You would not understand just by looking at it, however this galaxy has some pretty hot action happening in its core.
Its understood as a Seyfert galaxy, which implies it has a really active nucleus. Theres a supermassive great void therein, drawing in gas and dust and releasing brilliant radiation as it consumes. Astronomers desire to know more about this monster– in specific, its mass. Thats why theyre utilizing Hubble Space Telescope to observe it. The Wide Field Camera 3 is well-suited to image the bright core and separate out the different source of lights close by so they can zero in on the region around the black hole.
Diving into a Seyfert Galaxy
Galaxies with active nuclei are fascinating places. The majority of appear like quite normal spirals, particularly through optical telescopes. But, if you observe them in other wavelengths– state x-rays, ultraviolet or infrared, their cores stand apart like beacons. The cores are normally brighter than anything else in the galaxy. That tells you something energetic is occurring there. That brightness actually is a “death shriek” of sorts. Matter accretes onto the great void and gets superheated by high-speed collisions. That maelstrom is whats offering off light throughout much of the electromagnetic spectrum. About 10 percent of all galaxies are Seyferts and they were most likely quasars previously in their histories.
Eliminate All Ads on Universe Today
Join our Patreon for just $3!
Get the ad-free experience for life
You wouldnt understand just by looking at it, however this galaxy has some quite hot action happening in its core.
Heres another Seyfert galaxy as seen by Hubble. The streaks of blue and red in the image are star formation regions in the arms, with dark dust lanes extending across the galaxys starry centre.
If you look at their emission lines (that is, the spectra that reveal the light they produce), the data show that each kind has actually highly delighted gas near the black hole. On the other hand, the Type II Seyferts have narrower lines, and that means gas in the core is moving much more gradually.
Our own Milky Way is not presently a Seyfert. It does have a central supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A *. Right now, its very peaceful, just periodically gobbling large amounts of gas and dust. It might have been a Seyfert in the past, or it could be in the future if something takes place to feed our black hole and trigger it to “erupt” with activity.
What HST Tells Us About NGC 5495
In the HST image of this spiral its arms have bands of dust threaded throughout, and there are star birth regions here and there. Notice the hairs of blue in the arms. Those mainly hot young stars give off a great deal of ultraviolet light. The most huge of these stars will explode as supernovae 10 million or so years from now.
The core of the galaxy looks like theres a bar feeding material into the core. Astronomers are quite interested in these bars due to the fact that they show something about the age and evolutionary state of the galaxy itself.
And, then theres that intense central region, where the beast great void lives and feeds. Its likely quite enormous– millions or billions of times the mass of our Sun. Sucn objects affect the development of their galaxies, and astronomers are still working to comprehend how that works. Obviously, in addition to studying far-off Seyfert galaxies like NGC 5495, they also look at the one in our own galaxy. Even though its fairly quiet today, it still imitates the others do– consuming whatever gets caught in its strong gravitational pull.
For additional information
Hubble spies a magnificent spiral nebula
Introduction of Seyfert Galaxies
Like this: Like Loading …
Its understood as a Seyfert galaxy, which implies it has a very active nucleus. Heres another Seyfert galaxy as seen by Hubble. The core of the galaxy looks like theres a bar feeding material into the core. Of course, in addition to studying far-off Seyfert galaxies like NGC 5495, they likewise look at the one in our own galaxy.
