This breathtaking new Hubble Space Telescope image highlights the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 5643, located about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus. This galaxy is classified as a grand design spiral, meaning its two prominent, winding spiral arms are well-defined and easy to see. These arms are decorated with bright blue stars, intricate reddish-brown dust clouds, and pink star-forming regions.
While its beauty is striking in visible light, some of NGC 5643’s most fascinating features remain hidden from the human eye. Observations using ultraviolet and X-ray imaging and spectra reveal that the galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus — an extremely bright core powered by a supermassive black hole. As this black hole pulls in surrounding gas, the material forms a swirling disc that heats to hundreds of thousands of degrees. This intense heat causes the gas to emit light across the electromagnetic spectrum, with X-rays shining the brightest.
NGC 5643’s active galactic nucleus isn’t the brightest source of X-rays in the galaxy, though. Using ESA’s XMM-Newton, researchers discovered an even brighter X-ray-emitting object, NGC 5643 X-1, on the galaxy’s outskirts. What could be a more powerful source of X-rays than a supermassive black hole? Surprisingly, the answer appears to be a much smaller black hole! While the exact identity of NGC 5643 X-1 is not yet known, evidence points to a black hole that is about 30 times more massive than the Sun. Locked in an orbital dance with a companion star, the black hole ensnares gas from its stellar companion, creating a superheated disc that outshines the galactic center.
NGC 5643 was also the subject of a previous Hubble image. The new image incorporates additional wavelengths of light, including the red color that is characteristic of gas heated by massive young stars.
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2 Comments
The breathtaking new Hubble Space Telescope image highlights the stunning spiral galaxy.
VERY GOOD.
Topological vortices and their fractal structures are the foundation of the motion and evolution of all things in the universe. Spins create everything, and spins shape the world.
If anyone is interested in science, you can browse https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/4659236468.
Spins create everything, and spins shape the world.
If anyone is interested in science, you can browse https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/4659236468.