This is a ten thousand light-year long jet of plasma observed by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera, aboard NASA'S Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The image, which is much sharper than previous pictures taken with ground based telescopes. reveals unprecedented detail in the jet. The most remarkable feature is a distinctive twisted ladder structure produced by two spiral filaments of plasma. The pair of strands are separated by about 500 light-years. Other details reveal unusual knots and kinks in the outflowing material. The jet is produced by energetic activity at the core of the galaxy perhaps due to gravitational accretion of material onto a super massive black hole. In this ultraviolet light picture the image of the host galaxy, 3C 668, has been subtracted to allow details in the jet to be traced all the way in to the galaxy's nucleus (center). Image reconstruction techniques have been applied to minimize the effects of spherical aberration produced by the HST's 2.4 meter primary mirror.
Credits
Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | 3C 668 |
| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
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| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
