Hubble Image of the 100-Million-Solar-Mass Black Hole (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Image of the 100-Million-Solar-Mass Black Hole

Caption

This is a Hubble image of the 100-million-solar-mass black hole at the hub of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31, or the Andromeda galaxy. The compact cluster of blue stars is surrounded by the larger "double nucleus" of M31. The double nucleus is actually an elliptical ring of old reddish stars in orbit around the black hole but more distant than the blue stars.

Credit

NASA, ESA, and T. Lauer (National Optical Astronomy Observatory)

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