VLT Spots Star-Bursting Nuclear Ring in NGC 1097

Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, astronomers have imaged a 5,000-light-year-wide star-bursting ring in the center of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097.

NGC 1097 lies in the southern constellation Fornax at a distance of only 45 million light-years.

This galaxy was discovered by the German-British astronomer William Herschel on October 9, 1790.

Also known as Apg 77, ESO 416-20, LEDA 10488 and UGCA 41, it is a relatively bright barred spiral galaxy, seen face-on.

At magnitude 9.5, and thus just 25 times fainter than the faintest object that can be seen with the unaided eye, it appears in small telescopes as a bright, circular disk.

The galaxy hosts a black hole approximately 140 million times more massive than our Sun.

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Source

Image credit: VLT / ESO / TIMER Survey.

This image, taken with VLT’s MUSE instrument, shows the central region of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097.

Source / Image Courtesy

One Big Black Hole - 140 Million Times Our Sun’s Mass

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile ‘weighed’ a a barred spiral galaxy (NGC 1097) about 45 million light years from Earth.