Hubble has joined forces with two amateur astronomers to appropriate a fiend , and it may be one of the most beautiful four - arm giants ever seen .
This colourful mosaic offers a extremely elaborated face at the helical galaxy M106 , which sits about 20 million easy years by . The image was created by amateur astrophotographer Robert Gendler , who retrieved archive images from theHubble Space Telescopeto get together a mosaic of the centre of M106 . He then used his own and fellow amateur Jay GaBany ’s observation of M106 to compound with the Hubble data in areas where there was less reportage , and in the end , to fill in the holes and gap where no Hubble data survive .
At first glance the galaxy may look likeany other spiral , include our ownMilky Way . But M106 is full of surprises .
Like other with child galaxies , M106 holdsa supermassive black holeat its core . While the one at the meat of the Milky Way onlypicks at its food , the black maw in M106 is outstandingly ravenous , actively devouring matter and spewing out jets of molecule .
Even more flaky , the galaxy boasts a set of ghostly arms that shine brightly in X - ray and radio wavelengths , seen in this epitome in bolshy . Unlike the normal limbs of spiral galaxies , these arms comprise only hot natural gas and no star . In 2007 , pictures from several telescope helped discover that the arms are beingcreated by shock wavesdriven by the pitch-black hole ’s particle jet .
Gendler was a prizewinner in the recentHubble ’s Hidden Treasuresimage - processing competition . If you visualise have a go at mining Hubble ’s archives to create a stunning look-alike of your own , mark out theESA ’s introduction to using the Hubble Legacy Archive .
Image by NASA , ESA , the Hubble Heritage Team ( STScI / nimbus ) , and R. Gendler ( for the Hubble Heritage Team )
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