Hubble image archive
Black-Hole-Driven Outflow From Active Galaxy NGC 1068
The nearby barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1068 serves as a proxy for helping astronomers understand the fireworks taking place at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, driven by eruptions from a supermassive black hole. Because we live inside the Milky Way, much of our view of the galaxy...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2021
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2021-062-01fnv3z66x3v7k2a8089c6hn6c
The nearby barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1068 serves as a proxy for helping astronomers understand the fireworks taking place at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, driven by eruptions from a supermassive black hole. Because we live inside the Milky Way, much of our view of the galaxy’s center is blocked by intervening clouds of gas and dust. But, looking 45 million light-years away at NGC 1068 gives astronomers a birds-eye view of similar black hole outbursts. The inset Hubble Space Telescope image resolves hydrogen clouds as small as 10 light-years across within 150 light-years of the core. The clouds are glowing because they are caught in a "searchlight" of radiation beamed out of the galaxy's black hole, which is larger and more active than the black hole in the heart of our galaxy.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, Alex Filippenko (UC Berkeley), William Sparks (STScI), Luis C. Ho (KIAA-PKU), Matthew A Malkan (UCLA), Alessandro Capetti (STScI)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 1068 |
| Object Description | Active, spiral galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 2h 42m 40.99s |
| Dec. Position | 0° 0' 52.33" |
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Distance | 45 million light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST observations include those from programs (M.Malkan), (A. Filippenko), (C. Hu), and (W. Sparks) |
| Instrument | WFC3, ACS/WFC, WFPC2 |
| Filters | F606W, F658N, F814W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample wide and 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: Cyan: F606W, Orange: F814W, Red: F658N |
More Images From This Period
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov