Compact core of galaxy M32
esahubble_opo9209a April 8th, 1992
Credit: Tod R. Lauer/NASA/ESA
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope clearly shows the central core of the elliptical galaxy M32. This green-light image was taken with HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WPIPC), in high resolution mode, on August 17, 1991. The steady increase in brightness of M32 towards its center is readily apparent in the image, showing that the stars in M32 are strongly concentrated towards its nucleus, as if drawn into the center and held there by the gravitational field of a massive black hole. Theoretical models suggest that the structure of M32 is consistent with a central 3 million solar mass black hole.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9209a/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- opo9209a
- Subject Category
- C.5.4.9
- Subject Name
- IRAS 00399+4035, M 32, Messier 32, NGC 221
- Credits
- Tod R. Lauer/NASA/ESA
- Release Date
- 1992-04-08T06:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9209a/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Distance in light years from NED
- Facility
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Instrument
- WFPC1
- Color Assignment
- Pseudocolor
- Band
- Optical
- Bandpass
- V
- Central Wavelength
- 555
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 10.6742600072, 40.8648468949
- Reference Dimension
- 2950.0, 2365.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1475.0, 1182.5
- Scale
- -2.12706871542e-06, 2.12706871542e-06
- Rotation
- 76.7800000000001
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- ESA/Hubble
- URL
- http://www.spacetelescope.org/
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
- City
- Garching bei München
- State/Province
- Postal Code
- D-85748
- Country
- Germany
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- ESA/Hubble
- Publisher ID
- esahubble
- Resource ID
- opo9209a
- Resource URL
- http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/original/opo9209a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2003-12-09T17:36:12+01:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
