The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Hubble Space Telescope has captured a breathtaking celestial sight, unveiling a grand design spiral galaxy that leaves viewers in awe.
The image of this grand design spiral galaxy, named NGC 5643, was unveiled by NASA on December 13. Located in the constellation of Lupus, NGC 5643 is approximately 40 million light-years away from Earth.
A grand design spiral galaxy is a type of spiral galaxy known for its symmetrical pattern. This galaxy features two prominent, curving arms adorned with bright blue stars, as well as dusty pinkish-red regions where stars are actively forming.
While NGC 5643 is visually captivating in the visible light spectrum, some of its most intriguing features are invisible to the naked eye. Through ultraviolet and X-ray imaging and spectroscopy, scientists have uncovered an active galactic nucleus within NGC 5643, powered by a supermassive black hole.
When a supermassive black hole captures surrounding gases, these gases accumulate in a disk that heats up to hundreds of thousands of degrees. This superheated gas emits bright light across the electromagnetic spectrum, particularly in the X-ray wavelength range.
However, the active galactic nucleus in NGC 5643 is not the brightest source of X-rays within the galaxy. Researchers using the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton satellite have identified a brighter X-ray source at the outskirts of NGC 5643, known as NGC 5643 X-1.
What could emit X-rays brighter than a supermassive black hole? Surprisingly, NGC 5643 X-1 may be a much smaller black hole. While the exact identity of NGC 5643 X-1 remains unknown, evidence suggests it could be a black hole with a mass over 30 times that of the Sun.
This black hole orbits a companion star, siphoning gas from it to form a superheated disk that outshines the active galactic nucleus of NGC 5643.
Additionally, on December 12, NASA released another image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope of another spiral galaxy named UGC 10043, situated approximately 150 million light-years away in the constellation of Serpens.
NASA notes that the spiral arms of UGC 10043 are not visible from Earth due to its unique edge-on orientation, making it one of the rare galaxies with this perspective.
This side view gives UGC 10043’s galactic disk a sharp, piercing appearance, with prominent dust lanes creating thick bands that obscure the galaxy’s emitted light. If one could fly above UGC 10043 and observe it from above, the dust scattered across the galaxy could potentially reveal its spiral arms.
Despite the obscuring dust, some actively star-forming regions behind the dark clouds emit a glittering light. Additionally, a glowing, nearly egg-shaped “bulge” is visible at the center of the galaxy. Such bulges are common features in spiral galaxies, hinting at their structural composition.
These bulges gather stars orbiting above and below the rotating disk of the galaxy’s center. This feature, typically less noticeable in general galaxy images, appears significantly large compared to the galactic disk, possibly due to UGC 10043’s material absorption from nearby dwarf galaxies, causing the disk to appear distorted with one end bending upward and the other downward.
Similar to many full-color images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, this image is a composite created from multiple snapshots taken at different times, each capturing light at various wavelengths. It is worth noting that this composite image is a combination of data collected 23 years apart (in 2000 and 2023).
The longevity of the Hubble Space Telescope not only enables astronomers to capture new and improved images of old targets but also provides a valuable long-term data archive that continues to benefit the astronomy community.