In this view of the core of galaxy NGC 1068, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals far more detail than has ever been seen from the ground. This picture was taken through a narrow band filter with HST's Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC). The image was then computer processed to show additional detail in the clouds of ionized gas in the nucleus of NGC 1068.
Clouds as small as 10 light-years across are clearly resolved in the central 150 light-years of the core. The clouds are glowing because they are caught in a "searchlight" of radiation beamed out of the galaxy's energetic nucleus, which may contain a massive black hole. A schematic representation of this invisible cone of ionizing radiation has been artificially added to the image to illustrate how radiation is beamed from the hidden nucleus.
Credits
NASA, ESA, STScI, H. Ford, and the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) Investigation Definition Team.| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 1068 |
| 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. |
