SPACE — If you’re impressed by the scale of our sun, which is 333,000 times larger than Earth, you’ll be happy to know the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed something even bigger than that.
There is a galaxy in space that is 1.1 trillion times larger than our parent star. It’s called NGC 612, and now we’re treated to a new image.
But don’t be too impressed yet, because NGC 612 is not as big as the Milky Way. The galaxy we live in is about 1.5 trillion times larger than the sun.
According to a new release about the sighting of NGC 612, this galaxy falls into several classifications that make it very interesting to observe. Most interestingly, it is an active galaxy.
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In active galaxies, supermassive black holes power their central regions to create the highly energetic heart of the galaxy. This heart, in turn, spews jets of gas at nearly the speed of light.
As a result of all this, the central point also became so bright that it exceeded the combined light of every star in the galaxy itself. Stunning, right?
Although the Hubble Space Telescope’s new view of NGC 612 is edge-on (from a side angle), it’s easy to conclude the light is occurring in the center. Notably, there is also a so-called ‘central bulge’ in the area.
Instead, the orange and dark red zones in the image represent patches of matter called the galactic disk. That’s where the dust and cold hydrogen gas lie, and where star formation in NGC 612 occurs.
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The bulge, disk, and lack of spiral arms suggest it is a lenticular galaxy. This fact is key to what we see now, and will be discussed below.
The release also highlights how NGC 612 is a Seyfert galaxy, meaning it emits large amounts of infrared radiation, although it is also visible in visible light. Infrared wavelengths are a form of light that is invisible to the human eye.
On the bright side, we have instruments that can pick up infrared signals to reveal these hidden sources. The instrument belongs to the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble. The image above, Hubble made with it.
“NGC 612 is Seyfert Type II, which means matter near the center of the galaxy moves fairly quietly around the core. “The stars in this galaxy are very young, around 40 to 100 million years old,” wrote the description of the Hubble image.
2023-10-06 11:36:00
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