2.
Discovery of spiral galaxy NGC 5793
The new Hubble image is centered on NGC 5793, a spiral galaxy over 150
million light-years away in the constellation of Libra. This galaxy has two
particularly striking features: a beautiful dust lane and an intensely bright
center — much brighter than that of our own galaxy, or indeed those of
most spiral galaxies we observe. NGC 5793 has incredibly luminous centers
that are thought to be caused by hungry, massive black holes — black holes
that can be billions of times the size of the Sun — that pull in and devour
gas and dust from their surroundings. This galaxy is of great interest to
astronomers for many reasons. For one, it appears to house objects known
as masers (rays emitting microwave radiation). The NGC 5793 also has
intense mega-masers, which are thousands of times more luminous than
the Sun.
SOURCE:
Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, ESA
March, 2014
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge
faster than society gathers wisdom.”
- Isaac Asimov
Compiled byShubhang Gopal, S3G