Coiled Galaxy
The galaxy, called NGC 1097 and located 50 million light-years away, is spiral-shaped like our Milky Way, with long, spindly arms of stars.
The black hole is huge, about 100 million times the mass of our sun, and is feeding off gas and dust, along with the occasional unlucky star. Our Milky Way's central black hole is tame in comparison, with a mass of a few million suns.
The ring around the black hole is bursting with new star formation. An inflow of material toward the central bar of the galaxy is causing the ring to light up with new stars. And, the galaxy's red spiral arms and the swirling spokes seen between the arms show dust heated by newborn stars. Older populations of stars scattered through the galaxy are blue. The fuzzy blue dot to the left, which appears to fit snugly between the arms, is a companion galaxy. Other dots in the picture are either nearby stars in our galaxy, or distant galaxies.
This image was taken during Spitzer's cold mission, before it ran out of liquid coolant. The observatory's warm mission is ongoing, with two infrared channels operating at about 30 degrees Kelvin (-406 degrees Fahrenheit).
The colors blue, green, and red respectively indicate infrared light of wavelengths 3.6, 4.5, and 8.0 μm (micrometers). The "blue" light has also been subtracted from the "red" in order to enhance the visibility of the dust features.Relevante Bilder
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NGC 1097NGC 1097 = Arp 77 ist eine Balken-Spiralgalaxie mit aktivem Galaxienkern vom Hubble-Typ SBb im Sternbild Fornax am Südsternhimmel. Im Zentrum befindet sich ein auffälliger, rund 5500 Lichtjahre großer Ring mit starker Sternbildung. Dieser Bereich ist aktuell Ziel mehrerer Forschungsprojekte unter anderem bei der ESO. Es gibt deutliche Hinweise auf ein Schwarzes Loch mit etwa 100 Millionen Sonnenmassen im Kern der Galaxie. .. weiterlesen