by What it is: ESO 420-G013, an extremely bright face-on spiral galaxy harboring a hungry black hole
When it was taken: Jan. 30, 2024
Where it is: 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Sculptor
The image shows a bright core and brownish filaments of dark dust, but the galaxy's almost perfectly round disk is its most notable feature.
That's because Hubble, which has been in orbit around Earth since 1990, just happens to have a direct face-on view of ESO 420-G013.
Besides being a fine example of a spiral galaxy, ESO 420-G013 is a Seyfert galaxy.
Named after American astronomer Carl Keenan Seyfert, who researched the objects in 1943, a Seyfert galaxy has an extremely bright, point-like active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole, according to a NASA statement.
Deep within ESO 420-G013, its hungry black hole is pulling in surrounding material and sending out powerful radiation. It's also forming new stars at a high rate.
Source
When it was taken: Jan. 30, 2024
Where it is: 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Sculptor
The image shows a bright core and brownish filaments of dark dust, but the galaxy's almost perfectly round disk is its most notable feature.
That's because Hubble, which has been in orbit around Earth since 1990, just happens to have a direct face-on view of ESO 420-G013.
Besides being a fine example of a spiral galaxy, ESO 420-G013 is a Seyfert galaxy.
Named after American astronomer Carl Keenan Seyfert, who researched the objects in 1943, a Seyfert galaxy has an extremely bright, point-like active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole, according to a NASA statement.
Deep within ESO 420-G013, its hungry black hole is pulling in surrounding material and sending out powerful radiation. It's also forming new stars at a high rate.
Source
