Posted on 12/02/2025 12:48:07 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: What's happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy M77? The face-on galaxy lies a mere 47 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Sea Monster (Cetus). At that estimated distance, this gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across. Also known as NGC 1068, its compact and very bright core is well studied by astronomers exploring the mysteries of supermassive black holes in active Seyfert galaxies. M77's active core glows bright at x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio wavelengths. The featured sharp image of M77 was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image shows details of the spiral's winding spiral arms as traced by obscuring red dust clouds and blue star clusters, all circling the galaxy's bright white luminous center.
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
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.
🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔
The light in the lower left corner is a smart missle.
I remember those from missle command.
https://www.sci.news/astronomy/alma-counter-rotating-disks-supermassive-black-hole-messier-77-07705.html
Nope. It’s a V’ger plasma probe.
Here!!
Thanks for posting! Beautiful!
I was excited to see a paper from some Chinese astronomers about two suspected super massive black holes (40 million solar masses) that were going to collide soon. Alas! Looks like it was something else going on . The galaxy involved was 1.1 billion light years away .
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/swift/nasas-swift-studies-gas-churning-monster-black-holes/
Half the stars in a galaxy going clockwise , the other half going counterclockwise:
https://youtu.be/0oie90j989k?si=bfT4Ii22nhv55-6O
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.