This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, constellation Virgo. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA and S. Smartt (Queen’s University Belfast)
Spiral galaxy NGC 4845 is seen >65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. The galaxy’s orientation clearly reveals the galaxy’s striking spiral structure: a flat and dust-mottled disk surrounding a bright galactic bulge. NGC 4845’s glowing center hosts a gigantic version of a black hole, known as a supermassive black hole. The presence of a black hole in a distant galaxy like NGC 4845 can be inferred from its effect on the galaxy’s innermost stars; these stars experience a strong gravitational pull from the black hole and whizz around the galaxy’s center much faster than otherwise.
From investigating the m...
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