M77: Spiral Galaxy with an Active Center
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 and its 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 and is dominated by the (visible) red light emitted by hydrogen . The image shows details of the spiral's winding spiral arms as traced by obscuring dust clouds , and red-tinted star forming regions close in to the galaxy's luminous core. Astrophysicists: Browse 2,100+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library