Hubble Space Telescope observes galaxies with actively feeding bright black holes | Scientific news

The Hubble Space Telescope has focused on a galaxy called NGC 4951. The galaxy’s central resident is an actively feeding supermassive black hole. The image was taken as part of a campaign to better understand the evolution of galaxies and the universe itself.

NGC 3951, as captured by Hubble. (Image: NASA, ESA and D Thilker, The Johns Hopkins University; Image processing: Gladys Kober, NASA/Catholic University of America).

New Delhi: The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of the galaxy NGC 4951, located 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. NGC 4951 has active galactic nuclei (AGN) and is classified as a Seyfert galaxy. AGNs are typically so bright that they outshine the galaxies in which they occur. However, the entire disk of NGC 4951 is clearly visible despite having an AGN on it, which is why it is classified as a Seyfert galaxy.

The AGNs are powered by supermassive black holes that lurk in the cores of galaxies. The extreme friction in the swirling gas and dust falling into the black hole causes the material to glow at frequencies across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. This is why AGNs shine so brightly. Actively feeding black holes surrounded by glowing accretion disks are known as bright black holes.

Supermassive black holes lurk in the cores of most galaxies

Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have helped prove that supermassive black holes occupy the nuclei of most galaxies in the universe. Before Hubble’s deployment to low Earth orbit in 1990, these black holes were thought to exist only in theory. Hubble verified its existence by observing the effects of black holes, such as the accretion disks, the winds of black holes, and the jets of material ejected from black holes.

Hubble’s sensitive gaze was focused on NGC 4951 as part of a campaign to help astronomers better understand the evolution of galaxies, with a particular focus on the process of star formation. Hubble’s observations will be combined with those from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in support of the JWST Treasury Program. Such programs collect observations to potentially solve multiple scientific problems with a single coherent data set.

Hubble’s signature

Like most Hubble images, the galaxy is in a field of distant galaxies of all shapes, sizes and colors. SMEs of these interact. There are diffraction peaks above the particularly concentrated and intense light sources, usually foreground stars. The shape of the diffraction peak, a cross, is caused by the interaction of light with the internal support structure of the telescope, and can be considered a Hubble signature.