Dazzling galaxy Messier 77
The active galaxy Messier 77 in the constellation of Cetus
Wide-field image of the sky around Messier 77
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ESOcast 115 Light: Meet one of the most energetic objects in the Universe
Zooming in on Messier 77
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has
captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier
77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its
glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes — but it fails to betray
Messier 77’s turbulent nature.
This picturesque spiral galaxy appears to be tranquil, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Messier 77 (also known as NGC 1068) is one of the closest active galaxies, which are some of the most energetic and spectacular objects in the Universe. Their nuclei are often bright enough to outshine the whole of the rest of the galaxy. Active galaxies are among the brightest objects in the Universe and emit light at most, if not all, wavelengths, from gamma rays and X-rays all the way to microwaves and radiowaves. Messier 77 is further classified as a Type II Seyfert galaxy, characterised by being particularly bright at infrared wavelengths.
This impressive luminosity is caused by intense radiation blasting out from a central engine — the accretion disc surrounding a supermassive black hole.
Material that falls towards the black hole is compressed and heated up
to incredible temperatures, causing it to radiate a tremendous amount of
energy. This accretion disc is thought to be enshrouded by thick
doughnut-shaped structure of gas and dust, called a “torus”.
Observations of Messier 77 back in 2003 were the first to resolve such a
structure using the powerful VLT Interferometer (eso0319).
This image of Messier 77 was taken in four different wavelength bands represented by blue, red, violet and pink (hydrogen-alpha)
colours. Each wavelength brings out a different quality: for example,
the pinkish hydrogen-alpha highlights the hotter and younger stars
forming in the spiral arms, while in red are the fine, thread-like filamentary structures in the gas surrounding Messier 77 [1]. A foreground Milky Way star is also seen beside the galaxy centre, displaying tell-tale diffraction spikes.
Additionally, many more distant galaxies are visible; sitting at the
outskirts of the spiral arms, they appear tiny and delicate compared to
the colossal active galaxy .
Located 47 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster), Messier 77 is one of the most remote galaxies of the Messier catalogue. Initially, Messier believed that the highly luminous object he saw through his telescope was a cluster of stars,
but as technology progressed its true status as a galaxy was realised.
At approximately 100 000 light-years across, Messier 77 is also one of
largest galaxies in the Messier catalogue — so massive that its gravity
causes other nearby galaxies to twist and become warped (eso1707) [2] .
This image was obtained using the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument mounted on Unit Telescope 1 (Antu) of the VLT, located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. It hails from ESO’s Cosmic Gems programme,
an outreach initiative that produces images of interesting, intriguing
or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes for the purposes of
education and outreach.
Notes
[1] Similar red filaments are also found in NGC 1275.
They are cool, despite being surrounded by a very hot gas at around 50
million degrees Celsius. The filaments are suspended in a magnetic field
which maintains their structure and demonstrates how energy from the
central black hole is transferred to the surrounding gas.
[2] NGC 1055
is located about 60 million light-years away. It is an edge-on galaxy,
in contrast to Messier 77. This Astronomy Picture of the Day portrays
both of them together, in a field of view about the size of the Moon (APOD).
More information
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ESO Public Information Officer
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Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
Source: ESO
