Hubble image archive
Dark Rays in IC 5063 (Annotated)
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the heart of nearby active galaxy IC 5063 reveals a mixture of bright rays and dark shadows coming from the blazing core, home of a supermassive black hole.Astronomers suggest that a ring of dusty material surrounding the black hole may be cas...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2020
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2020-58-4779-image
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the heart of nearby active galaxy IC 5063 reveals a mixture of bright rays and dark shadows coming from the blazing core, home of a supermassive black hole.
Astronomers suggest that a ring of dusty material surrounding the black hole may be casting its shadow into space.
According to their scenario, this interplay of light and shadow may occur when light blasted by the monster black hole strikes the dust ring, which is buried deep inside the core. Light streams through gaps in the ring, creating the brilliant cone-shaped rays. However, denser patches in the disk block some of the light, casting long, dark shadows (highlighted by the dotted lines) through the galaxy.
This phenomenon is similar to sunlight piercing our Earthly clouds at sunset, creating a mixture of bright rays and dark shadows formed by beams of light scattered by the atmosphere.
However, the bright rays and dark shadows appearing in IC 5063 are happening on a vastly larger scale, shooting across at least 36,000 light-years.
IC 5063 resides 156 million light-years from Earth.
The observations were taken on March 7 and Nov. 25, 2019 by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Credits
NASA, ESA, STScI and W.P. Maksym (CfA)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | IC 5063 |
| Object Description | Seyfert galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 20:52:02.34 |
| Dec. Position | -57:04:07.61 |
| Constellation | Pavo |
| Distance | Approximately 160 million light-years |
| Dimensions | Image is approximately 1.2 arcminutes across (54,000 light-years) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from programs (G. Fabbiano) and (A. Barth) |
| Instrument | ACS/WFC & WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | 11 November 2019 and 7 March 2019 |
| Filters | F673N, F763M, F814W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/UVIS and ACS instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F673N Green: F763M Red: F814W |
More Images From This Period
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov