Elegant spiral hides a hungry monster

Esahubble_potw1541a_1024

esahubble_potw1541a October 12th, 2015

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

NGC 4639 is a beautiful example of a type of galaxy known as a barred spiral. It lies over 70 million light-years away in the constellation ofVirgo and is one of about 1500 galaxies that make up the Virgo Cluster. In this image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, one can clearly see the bar running through the bright, round core of the galaxy. Bars are found in around two thirds of spiral galaxies, and are thought to be a natural phase in their evolution. The galaxys spiral arms are sprinkled with bright regions of active star formation. Each of these tiny jewels is actually several hundred light-years across and contains hundreds or thousands of newly formed stars. But NGC 4639 also conceals a dark secret in its core a massive black hole that is consuming the surrounding gas. This is known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), and is revealed by characteristic features in the spectrum of light from the galaxy and byX-rays produced close to the black hole as the hot gas plunges towards it. Most galaxies are thought to contain a black hole at the centre. NGC 4639 is in fact a very weak example of an AGN, demonstrating that AGNs exist over a large range of activity, from galaxies like NGC 4639 to distant quasars, where the parent galaxy is almost completely dominated by the emissions from the AGN.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1541a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 4639
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1541a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 42m 52.3s
DEC = 13° 15’ 25.0”
Orientation
North is 58.5° CW
Field of View
2.4 x 2.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (U) 350.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Orange
Green
Blue
Esahubble_potw1541a_1280
×
ID
potw1541a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4639
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2015-10-12T14:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1541a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Optical, Ultraviolet
Bandpass
H, I, V, U
Central Wavelength
1600, 814, 555, 350
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
190.717766543, 13.2569502478
Reference Dimension
3646.0, 3816.0
Reference Pixel
1823.0, 1908.0
Scale
-1.09832605691e-05, 1.09832605691e-05
Rotation
-58.480000000000025
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
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
potw1541a
Metadata Date
2015-08-28T09:02:57+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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