The massive elliptical galaxy in the center of this image, taken by the Digitized Sky Survey, resides in an uncluttered region of space. A close-up view of the galaxy, called NGC 1600, is shown in the inset image, which was taken in near-infrared light by the Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS).
At the heart of NGC 1600 lurks one of the most massive black holes ever detected. The supersized black hole, weighing 17 billion suns, resides in an unlikely place. The biggest supermassive black holes – those roughly 10 billion times the mass of our sun – have been found at the cores of very large galaxies in regions of the universe packed with other large galaxies. This black hole, however, lives in a cosmic backwater town.
Astronomers suggest that the black hole grew from repeated collisions between its home galaxy and neighboring galaxies, which funneled gas to the massive object. The black hole also may have merged with a black hole from one of the consumed galaxies. The frequent feasts may also explain why NGC 1600 has few neighbors.
NGC 1600 is located 209 million light-years from Earth. The NICMOS image was taken on Nov. 10, 1998.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and C.-P. Ma (University of California, Berkeley);Acknowledgment: Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, UKSTU/AAO, and A. Quillen (University of Rochester)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 1600 |
| Object Description | Elliptical Galaxy (inset image) |
| R.A. Position | 04h 31m 39.93s |
| Dec. Position | -5° 5' 10.5" |
| Constellation | Eridanus |
| Distance | 209 million light-years (64 million parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The HST data (inset image) were taken from proposal PI: A. Quillen (University of Rochester), G. Bower (CSC/STScI), and G. Rieke (Steward Observatory/University of Arizona). The science team comprises J. Thomas (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany), C.-P. Ma (University of California, Berkeley), N. McConnell (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), J. Greene (Princeton University), J. Blakeslee (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), and R. Janish (University of California, Berkeley). |
| Instrument | HST>NICMOS |
| Exposure Dates | November 10, 1998, Exposure Time: 32 minutes |
| Filters | F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|
| 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. |
