In the Center of Spiral Galaxy NGC 5033
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, MAST - Processing: Judy Schmidt
Explanation: What's happening in the center of spiral NGC 5033? Many things -- some circular, some energetic, and some not well understood.
NGC 5033 is known as a
Seyfert galaxy because of the great activity seen in its nucleus. Bright
stars, dark
dust, and
interstellar gas all swirl quickly around a galactic center that appears slightly offset from a
supermassive black hole. This offset is thought to be the result of
NGC 5033 merging with another galaxy sometime in the past billion years. The
featured image was taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope in 2005.
NGC 5033 spans about 100,000
light years and is so far away that we see it only as it existed about
40 million years ago.
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