Astronomers have captured stunning photos of the lenticular spiral galaxy IC 4709 using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a beautiful picture of IC 4709's swirling disk, filled with stars and dust bands, and the faint halo that surrounds it. The color image is composed of observations in the near-infrared and visible parts of the spectrum by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The image is based on data obtained through two filters. The colors are obtained by assigning a different hue to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Koss / A. Barth.
No. 4709 It is located in the Southern Telescope constellation and is about 240 million light years away from Earth.
Also known as ESO 182-14 or LEDA 61835, the galaxy has a diameter of 60,000 light years.
IC 4709 is Found It was discovered on September 14, 1901 by American astronomer DeLisle Stewart.
In the galaxy Active galactic nucleiIt is a compact region at the center, and the material inside it is being pulled towards the supermassive black hole.
“If IC 4709's core were simply filled with stars, it would not be as bright as it is,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“Instead, we have a massive black hole with a mass 65 million times that of the Sun.”
“A disk of gas swirls around and eventually enters this black hole. As it spins, the gas collides with itself and heats up.”
“It reaches such high temperatures that it emits electromagnetic radiation ranging from infrared to visible light to ultraviolet light and beyond, including in this case x-rays.”
“The active galactic nucleus of IC 4709 is obscured by a dark dust belt that is barely visible in the galaxy's centre in Hubble Space Telescope images, blocking optical radiation from the nucleus itself,” the researchers added.
“But Hubble's incredible resolution gives us a detailed picture of very small active galactic nuclei and their interactions with their host galaxies.”
“This is essential for understanding supermassive black holes in galaxies much more distant than IC 4709, where it's impossible to resolve such fine detail.”
Source: www.sci.news
