Image of Galaxy (IMAGE)

University of Göttingen

Image of Galaxy

Caption

The irregular galaxy NGC 6240. New observations show that it harbours not two but three supermassive black holes at its core. The northern black hole (N) is active and was known before. The zoomed-in new high-spatial resolution image shows that the southern component consists of two supermassive black holes (S1 and S2). The green colour indicates the distribution of gas ionized by radiation surrounding the black holes. The red lines show the contours of the starlight from the galaxy and the length of the white bar corresponds to 1000 light years.

Credit

P Weilbacher (AIP), NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

Usage Restrictions

None

License

Licensed content

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.