Photo of the Day: a spiral galaxy with a supermassive black hole in the center

At a distance of about 70 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of the Crane is NGC 7582 – a spiral galaxy with an active nucleus, in the center of which is a supermassive black hole. Its image as part of the study was obtained by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) using the MUSE instrument, located on the VLT (Very Large Telescope) telescope in Chile. The latter is actually a huge system of eight telescopes used to detect the influence of black holes on the formation of stars in the galaxy.

The active galactic nucleus is an extremely powerful engine that is powered by a supermassive black hole that consumes everything around it. Matter in this process heats up and throws out a huge amount of energy into the surrounding space. The researchers decided to find out what effect this has on the galaxy as a whole.

Scientists led by Stephanie Juneau have studied the distribution of various ionized elements in the galaxy. In the image to the right, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen are shown in blue, green, and red, respectively. The red glowing dots are areas of high star formation activity, while the predominant blue areas are cone-shaped material flowing from an active galactic nucleus. The image on the left shows the same galaxy, but in a more classic way. Dust lanes can be seen that block out the blue and orange light from the stars.

The MUSE tool also allowed the team of scientists to map the movement of stars and gas. They found that NGC 7582 may have a structure that has formed around a supermassive black hole at its center that shields the rest of the galaxy from the sudden outflow of core energy. This stream forms an extremely powerful wind.

Source: Trash Box

You may also like