Posted on 11/16/2022 7:31:10 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Spiral galaxy NGC 1097 shines in southern skies, about 45 million light-years away in the heated constellation Fornax. Its blue spiral arms are mottled with pinkish star forming regions in this colorful galaxy portrait. They seem to have wrapped around a small companion galaxy above and right of center, about 40,000 light-years from the spiral's luminous core. That's not NGC 1097's only peculiar feature, though. This very deep exposure hints of faint, mysterious jets, seen to extend well beyond the bluish arms. In fact, four faint jets are ultimately recognized in optical images of NGC 1097. The jets trace an X centered on the galaxy's nucleus, but probably don't originate there. Instead, they could be fossil star streams, trails left over from the capture and disruption of a much smaller galaxy in the large spiral's ancient past. A Seyfert galaxy, NGC 1097's nucleus also harbors a supermassive black hole.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
bttt
What a magnificent universe God has made.
M.C. Thanks! I am glad they colorize these photos. Besides helping to understand the structure it is just a lot more beautiful to look at!
Leonids tonight if its not cloudy or cold. (It probably will be!)
They are staring back at us “In the arms of the Milky Way”.
And they are thinking to themselves, looks nice, but that many carbs is going to give us diabetes.
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