esahubble_opo9214a May 7th, 1992
Credit: P. Crane (European Southern Observatory), and NASA/ESA
A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the central region of the galaxy NGC 3862 reveals a jet-like feature previously unseen in optical wavelengths. The image was taken with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera in F196 mode at a wavelength of 3400 angstroms. The image's 0.06 arc second resolution reveals several knots and twists in the jet. The jet's full angular size is about 0.6 arc second, corresponding to a length of 740 light-years. NGC 3862 is an elliptical galaxy in a rich cluster of galaxies known as Abell 1367, located at a distance of about 260 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo. This new type of jet suggests that astronomers are seeing a new and unexpected phenomena in galactic nuclei.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9214a/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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