Shiny, starry spiral arms encompass an lively galactic heart on this new NASA Hubble Area Telescope picture of the galaxy NGC 4951.
Positioned within the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is situated roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth. It is categorised as a Seyfert galaxy, which signifies that it is an especially energetic kind of galaxy with an lively galactic nucleus (AGN). Nonetheless, Seyfert galaxies are distinctive from different types of AGNs as a result of the galaxy itself can nonetheless be clearly seen — several types of AGNs are so shiny that it is practically not possible to look at the precise galaxy that they reside inside.
AGNs like NGC 4951 are powered by supermassive black holes. As matter whirls into the black gap, it generates radiation throughout the complete electromagnetic spectrum, making the AGN shine brightly.
Hubble helped show that supermassive black holes exist on the core of virtually each galaxy in our universe. Earlier than the telescope launched into low-Earth orbit in 1990, astronomers solely theorized about their existence. The mission verified their existence by observing the plain results of black holes, like jets of fabric ejecting from black holes and disks of gasoline and dirt revolving round these black holes at very excessive speeds.
These observations of NGC 4951 had been taken to supply helpful information for astronomers finding out how galaxies evolve, with a selected deal with the star formation course of. Hubble gathered this info, which is being mixed with observations with the James Webb Area Telescope (JWST) to assist a JWST Treasury program. Treasury applications accumulate observations that concentrate on the potential to unravel a number of scientific issues with a single, coherent dataset and allow a wide range of compelling scientific investigations.