Hubble image archive
Spiral Galaxy NGC 3147
Hubble Probes the Black Hole Inside a Majestic Spiral GalaxyThe graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 3147 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space in this Hubble Space Telescope image. They are actually long lanes of young blue stars, pinkis...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2019
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2019-35-4545-image
Hubble Probes the Black Hole Inside a Majestic Spiral Galaxy
The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 3147 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space in this Hubble Space Telescope image. They are actually long lanes of young blue stars, pinkish nebulas, and dust in silhouette.
The beauty of the galaxy belies the fact that at its very center is a malnourished black hole surrounded by a thin, compact disk of stars, gas, and dust that have been caught up in a gravitational maelstrom. The black hole's gravity is so intense that anything that ventures near it gets swept up in the disk.
The disk is so deeply embedded in the black hole's intense gravitational field that the light from the gas disk is modified, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, giving astronomers a unique peek at the dynamic processes close to a black hole.
NGC 3147 is located 130 million light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Draco the Dragon.
Credits
NASA, ESA, S. Bianchi (Università degli Studi Roma Tre University), A. Laor (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology), and M. Chiaberge (ESA, STScI, and JHU)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 3147 |
| Object Description | Spiral Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 10:16:53.6 |
| Dec. Position | +73:24:02 |
| Constellation | Draco |
| Distance | 130 million light-years |
| Dimensions | Image is 2.2 arcmin across (about 83,000 light-years) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from programs (A. Riess) |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS; WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | Oct 2017 - Mar 2018 |
| Filters | F555W, F814W, F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow 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: F555W Green: F814W Red: F160W |
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Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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