Astronomy Picture Of The Day: Spiral Galaxy NGC 1097

 

#NASA, #Space, #astronomy, #διάστημα,

NGC 1097 This is barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097, it is located approximately 45 million light-years away, in the constellation Formax. It is a barred spiral galaxy type SBb, similar to the Milky Way, but with a prominent central bar structure. At its centre, it hosts a supermassive black hole, about 100 million times the mass of the Sun, which actively feeds on gas and dust. The central black hole is surrounded by a distinct ring of dust and gas, where intense star formation is taking place visible as bright patches in the image. Material from galaxy's outskirts flows inward, fuelling this stellar activity. The current image, focusing on the inner region, was obtained with advanced insruments such ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph at ESO's Very Large Telescope VLT, demonstrating incredible resolution.