NASA has released a stunning new image of the active center of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106, taken with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.
This Webb image shows Messier 106, a spiral galaxy 20 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. Image courtesy of NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / J. Glenn.
Located more than 20 million light years from Earth in the small northern constellation Canes Venatici, Messier 106 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies and closest to our Milky Way Galaxy.
Also known as M106 or NGC 4258, the galaxy was discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier's observational assistant, Pierre Méchain.
“Despite its name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor catalogued by the famous 18th century astronomer Charles Messier,” astronomers Webb said in a statement.
“This galaxy was discovered by his assistant Pierre Méchain, but was not catalogued during his lifetime.”
“Messier 106, along with six other objects they discovered but did not record, Messier Catalogue In the 20th century.”
Messier 106 is similar in size and brightness to our galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.
Messier 106 measures more than 130,000 light-years from end to end, but because of its great distance from the Milky Way galaxy, it appears very small from Earth's perspective.
At the center of Messier 106 lies an extremely active supermassive black hole with a mass about 40 million times that of the Sun.
Unlike the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, which only occasionally sucks in gas particles, Messier 106's black hole is actively consuming material.
“As the gas spirals toward Messier 106's black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation,” the astronomers said.
New images of Messier 106 Webb's near infrared camera (NIRCam).
“The observations were made as part of a dedicated program to study active galactic nuclei – luminous central regions of galaxies dominated by light emitted by dust and gas falling into a black hole,” the researchers said.
“The blue areas in this image reflect the distribution of stars throughout the central region of the galaxy.”
“Orange areas indicate warmer dust, while more intense reds represent cooler dust.”
“The blue-green, green and yellow tones near the center of the image represent the various gas distributions across the region.”
Messier 106 also has a notable feature: it has two “unusual” extra arms that are visible in radio and x-ray wavelengths, rather than visible light.
“Unlike normal arms, these are made up of hot gas rather than stars,” the scientists said.
“Astronomers think these extra arms are the result of black hole activity, a feedback effect that has been seen in other galaxies.”
“These could be caused by outflows of material produced by the violent churning of gas around the black hole, creating a phenomenon similar to waves rushing out of the ocean when they hit rocks near the shore.”
Source: www.sci.news
