A galaxy with a glowing heart
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgements: D. Calzetti (UMass) and the LEGUS TeamGalaxy cores are of great interest to astronomers. The centres of most, if not all, galaxies are thought to contain a supermassive black hole, surrounded by a disc of infalling material.
NGC 1433 is being studied as part of a survey of 50 nearby galaxies known as the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS). Ultraviolet radiation is observed from galaxies, mainly tracing the most recently formed stars. In Seyfert galaxies, ultraviolet light is also thought to emanate from the accretion discs around their central black holes. Studying these galaxies in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum is incredibly useful to study how the gas is behaving near the black hole. This image was obtained using a mix of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light.
LEGUS will study a full range of properties from a sample of galaxies, including their internal structure. This Hubble survey will provide a unique foundation for future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ALMA has already caught unexpected results relating to the centre of NGC 1433, finding a surprising spiral structure in the molecular gas close to the centre of NGC 1433. The astronomers also found a jet of material flowing away from the black hole, extending for only 150 light-years — the smallest such molecular outflow ever observed in a galaxy beyond our own.Relevante Bilder
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NGC 1433NGC 1433 ist eine Balken-Spiralgalaxie vom Hubble-Typ SBa im Sternbild Pendeluhr am Südsternhimmel. Sie ist schätzungsweise 41 Millionen Lichtjahre von der Milchstraße entfernt und hat einen Durchmesser von etwa 95.000 Lichtjahren. Dieses Objekt wird als Seyfert-Galaxie klassifiziert, es handelt sich also um eine aktive Galaxie, deren supermassereiches Schwarzes Loch im Zentrum eine große Masse an Materie akkretiert und dabei starke Strahlung über weite Teile des elektromagnetischen Spektrums aussendet. .. weiterlesen