Hubble examines a bustling galactic center

September 19 () –

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy IC 4709, 240 million light-years away, highlighted by a notable active galactic nucleus (AGN).

If the core of IC 4709 only had stars, it would not be so bright. Instead, it houses a gigantic black hole, 65 million times more massive than our Sun.

A disk of gas spirals around this black hole and eventually enters it, colliding and heating up as it spins. It reaches temperatures so high that emits large amounts of electromagnetic radiationfrom infrared light to visible light, ultraviolet light and X-rays.

A dark dust lane, barely visible at the center of the galaxy in the image above, obscures the AGN in IC 4709.. The dust lane blocks any visible light emission from the nucleus itself. However, Hubble’s spectacular resolution gives astronomers a detailed view of the interaction between the AGN, which is quite small, and its host galaxy. This is essential for understanding supermassive black holes in galaxies much more distant than IC 4709, where it is not possible to resolve such fine details.

This image incorporates data from two Hubble surveys of nearby AGN originally identified by the NASA’s Swift telescope. There are plans for Swift to collect new data on these galaxies. Swift hosts three multiwavelength telescopes, which collect data in visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Its X-ray component will allow SWIFT to directly see X-rays from IC 4709’s AGN pushing through the obscuring dust. ESA’s Euclid telescopewhich is currently studying the dark Universe in optical and infrared light, will also image IC 4709 and other local AGN. Its data, together with those from Hubble, provide astronomers with complementary views of the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

These insights are critical to further investigating and better understanding black holes and their influence on their host galaxies, according to NASA.