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Hubble images a great spiral
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Featured in the image is the brilliant spiral galaxy NGC 5643, located about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus, Wolf. NGC 5643 is a spiral of grand design, indicating the galaxy’s symmetrical shape with two large, winding spiral arms clearly visible. Bright blue stars define the galaxy’s spiral arms, along with reddish-brown dust clouds and pink star-forming regions.
As fascinating as the galaxy appears at visible wavelengths, some of NGC 5643’s most interesting features are hidden from the human eye. Ultraviolet and X-ray images and spectra of NGC 5643 show that the galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus: a particularly bright galactic core powered by a supermassive black hole. When a supermassive black hole traps gas from its surroundings, the gas accumulates in a disk that is heated to hundreds of thousands of degrees. Superheated gas glows across the electromagnetic spectrum, but especially at X-ray wavelengths.
Although the active galactic nucleus of NGC 5643 is not the brightest X-ray source in the galaxy. Researchers using ESA’s XMM-Newton discovered an even brighter X-ray emitting object on the outskirts of the galaxy, called NGC 5643 X-1. What could be a more powerful source of X-rays than a supermassive black hole? Surprisingly, the answer seems to be a very small black hole! Although the exact identity of NGC 5643 X-1 is unknown, evidence points to a black hole about 30 times more massive than the Sun. Locked in an orbital dance with a companion star, the black hole traps gas from its stellar companion, creating a superheated disk that protrudes beyond NGC 5643’s galactic core.
NGC 5643 was also the subject of a previous Hubble image.. Additional wavelengths of light are included in the new image, including the red color characteristic of gas heated by massive young stars.
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Media Liaison:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
