Supermassive and super-hungry

Esahubble_potw1601a_1024

esahubble_potw1601a January 4th, 2016

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA and S. Smartt (Queen's University Belfast)

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, located over 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). The galaxys orientation clearly reveals the galaxys striking spiral structure: a flat and dust-mottled disc surrounding a bright galactic bulge. NGC 4845s glowing centre hosts a gigantic version of a black hole, known as a supermassive black hole. The presence of a black hole in a distant galaxy like NGC 4845 can be inferred from its effect on the galaxys innermost stars; these stars experience a strong gravitational pull from the black hole and whizz around the galaxys centre much faster than otherwise. From investigating the motion of these central stars, astronomers can estimate the mass of the central black hole for NGC 4845 this is estimated to be hundreds of thousands times heavier than the Sun. This same technique was also used to discover the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way Sagittarius A* which hits some four million times the mass of the Sun (potw1340a). The galactic core of NGC 4845 is not just supermassive, but also super-hungry. In 2013 researchers were observing another galaxy when they noticed a violent flare at the centre of NGC 4845. The flare came from the central black hole tearing up and feeding off an object many times more massive than Jupiter. A brown dwarf or a large planet simply strayed too close and was devoured by the hungry core of NGC 4845.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1601a/

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 4845
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Activity > AGN
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1601a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 58m 1.5s
DEC = 1° 34’ 32.4”
Orientation
North is 28.0° CCW
Field of View
2.3 x 1.8 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Green Hubble (WFPC2) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC2) Optical (B) 450.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Green
Red
Blue
Esahubble_potw1601a_1280
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ID
potw1601a
Subject Category
C.5.3.2   D.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4845
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA and S. Smartt (Queen's University Belfast)
Release Date
2016-01-04T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1601a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
NED
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2, WFC2
Color Assignment
Green, Red, Blue
Band
Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
I, V, B
Central Wavelength
814, 606, 450
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
194.506213757, 1.57566148062
Reference Dimension
1373.0, 1076.0
Reference Pixel
686.5, 538.0
Scale
-2.77615371858e-05, 2.77615371858e-05
Rotation
28.039999999999988
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
potw1601a
Metadata Date
2015-10-06T10:08:53+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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