Invisible 'dark radiation' may explain a big problem with dark energy
NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet
7 min read
NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet 55 Cancri e could look like. Observations by NASA’s Webb telescope suggest it may be surrounded by an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, which could have bubbled up from of an ocean of magma on the planet’s surface.
While the planet is too hot to be habitable, detecting its atmosphere could provide insights into the early conditions of Earth, Venus, and Mars.
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet atmosphere outside our solar system.
Renyu Hu from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is lead author on a paper published today in Nature. “Webb is pushing the frontiers of exoplanet characterization to rocky planets,” Hu said. “It is truly enabling a new type of science.”
Super-Hot Super-Earth 55 Cancri e55 Cancri e, also known as Janssen, is one of five known planets orbiting the Sun-like star 55 Cancri, in the constellation Cancer. With a diameter nearly twice that of Earth and density slightly greater, the planet is classified as a super-Earth: larger than Earth, smaller than Neptune, and likely similar in composition to the rocky planets in our solar system.
Data from the Mid-Infrared Instrument on NASA’s Webb telescope shows the decrease in brightness of the 55 Cancri system as the rocky planet 55 Cancri e moves behind the star, a phenomenon known as a secondary eclipse. The data indicates that the planet’s dayside temperature is about 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
To describe 55 Cancri e as “rocky,” however, could leave the wrong impression. The planet orbits so close to its star (about 1.4 million miles, or one-twenty-fifth the distance between Mercury and the Sun) that its surface is likely to be molten — a bubbling ocean of magma. With such a tight orbit, the planet is also likely to be tidally locked, with a dayside that faces the star at all times and a nightside in perpetual darkness.
In spite of numerous observations since it was discovered to transit in 2011, the question of whether or not 55 Cancri e has an atmosphere — or even could have one given its high temperature and the continuous onslaught of stellar radiation and wind from its star — has gone unanswered.
“I’ve worked on this planet for more than a decade,” said Diana Dragomir, an exoplanet researcher at the University of New Mexico and co-author on the study. “It’s been really frustrating that none of the observations we’ve been getting have robustly solved these mysteries. I am thrilled that we’re finally getting some answers!”
Unlike the atmospheres of gas giant planets, which are relatively easy to spot (the first was detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope more than two decades ago), thinner and denser atmospheres surrounding rocky planets have remained elusive.
Previous studies of 55 Cancri e using data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope suggested the presence of a substantial atmosphere rich in volatiles (molecules that occur in gas form on Earth) like oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. But researchers could not rule out another possibility: that the planet is bare, save for a tenuous shroud of vaporized rock, rich in elements like silicon, iron, aluminum, and calcium. “The planet is so hot that some of the molten rock should evaporate,” explained Hu.
Measuring Subtle Variations in Infrared ColorsTo distinguish between the two possibilities, the team used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to measure 4- to 12-micron infrared light coming from the planet.
A thermal emission spectrum of the exoplanet 55 Cancri e — captured by the NIRCam instrument, GRISM Spectrometer, and MIRI Low-Resolution Spectrometer on NASA’s Webb telescope — shows that the planet may be surrounded by an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide and other volatiles.
Although Webb cannot capture a direct image of 55 Cancri e, it can measure subtle changes in light from the system as the planet orbits the star.
By subtracting the brightness during the secondary eclipse, when the planet is behind the star (starlight only), from the brightness when the planet is right beside the star (light from the star and planet combined), the team was able to calculate the amount of various wavelengths of infrared light coming from the dayside of the planet.
This method, known as secondary eclipse spectroscopy, is similar to that used by other research teams to search for atmospheres on other rocky exoplanets, like TRAPPIST-1 b.
Cooler Than ExpectedThe first indication that 55 Cancri e could have a substantial atmosphere came from temperature measurements based on its thermal emission, or heat energy given off in the form of infrared light. If the planet is covered in dark molten rock with a thin veil of vaporized rock or no atmosphere at all, the dayside should be around 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (~2,200 degrees Celsius).
“Instead, the MIRI data showed a relatively low temperature of about 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit [~1540 degrees Celsius],” said Hu. “This is a very strong indication that energy is being distributed from the dayside to the nightside, most likely by a volatile-rich atmosphere.” While currents of lava can carry some heat around to the nightside, they cannot move it efficiently enough to explain the cooling effect.
When the team looked at the NIRCam data, they saw patterns consistent with a volatile-rich atmosphere. “We see evidence of a dip in the spectrum between 4 and 5 microns — less of this light is reaching the telescope,” explained co-author Aaron Bello-Arufe, also from NASA JPL. “This suggests the presence of an atmosphere containing carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, which absorb these wavelengths of light.” A planet with no atmosphere or an atmosphere consisting only of vaporized rock would not have this specific spectral feature.
“We’ve spent the last 10 years modeling different scenarios, trying to imagine what this world might look like,” said co-author Yamila Miguel from the Leiden Observatory and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON). “Finally getting some confirmation of our work is priceless!”
Bubbling Magma OceanThe team thinks that the gases blanketing 55 Cancri e would be bubbling out from the interior rather than being present ever since the planet formed. “The primary atmosphere would be long gone because of the high temperature and intense radiation from the star,” said Bello-Arufe. “This would be a secondary atmosphere that is continuously replenished by the magma ocean. Magma is not just crystals and liquid rock; there’s a lot of dissolved gas in it, too.”
While 55 Cancri e is far too hot to be habitable, researchers think it could provide a unique window for studying interactions between atmospheres, surfaces, and interiors of rocky planets, and perhaps provide insights into the early conditions of Earth, Venus, and Mars, which are thought to have been covered in magma oceans far in the past.
“Ultimately, we want to understand what conditions make it possible for a rocky planet to sustain a gas-rich atmosphere: a key ingredient for a habitable planet,” said Hu.
This research was conducted as part of Webb’s General Observers (GO) Program 1952. Analysis of additional secondary eclipse observations of 55 Cancri e are currently in progress.
More About the MissionThe James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
MIRI was developed through a 50-50 partnership between NASA and ESA. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL led the U.S. efforts for MIRI, and a multinational consortium of European astronomical institutes contributes for ESA. George Rieke with the University of Arizona is the MIRI science team lead. Gillian Wright is the MIRI European principal investigator.
The MIRI cryocooler development was led and managed by JPL, in collaboration with Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
News Media ContactsLaura Betz / Rob Gutro
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov / rob.gutro@nasa.gov
Margaret Carruthers / Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
mcarruthers@stsci.edu / cpulliam@stsci.edu
Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
Share Details Last Updated May 08, 2024 Related Terms- 55 Cancri e
- Exoplanet Atmosphere
- Exoplanets
- James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
- Super-Earth Exoplanets
Article
9 hours ago 6 min read Breaking the Scaling Limits: New Ultralow-noise Superconducting Camera for Exoplanet Searches
Article
1 day ago 6 min read NASA’s Webb Maps Weather on Planet 280 Light-Years Away
Article
1 week ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
This Earth-like exoplanet is the first confirmed to have an atmosphere
Nature, Published online: 08 May 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01332-w
55 Cancri e is too hot to support life as we know it, but could provide clues about Earth’s formation.A secondary atmosphere on the rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e
Nature, Published online: 08 May 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07432-x
A secondary atmosphere on the rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri eNew NASA Black Hole Visualization Takes Viewers Beyond the Brink
5 min read
New NASA Black Hole Visualization Takes Viewers Beyond the BrinkEver wonder what happens when you fall into a black hole? Now, thanks to a new, immersive visualization produced on a NASA supercomputer, viewers can plunge into the event horizon, a black hole’s point of no return.
In this visualization of a flight toward a supermassive black hole, labels highlight many of the fascinating features produced by the effects of general relativity along the way. Produced on a NASA supercomputer, the simulation tracks a camera as it approaches, briefly orbits, and then crosses the event horizon — the point of no return — of a monster black hole much like the one at the center of our galaxy. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellView the plunge in 360 video on YouTube
“People often ask about this, and simulating these difficult-to-imagine processes helps me connect the mathematics of relativity to actual consequences in the real universe,” said Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who created the visualizations. “So I simulated two different scenarios, one where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and one where it crosses the boundary, sealing its fate.”
The visualizations are available in multiple forms. Explainer videos act as sightseeing guides, illuminating the bizarre effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Versions rendered as 360-degree videos let viewers look all around during the trip, while others play as flat all-sky maps.
To create the visualizations, Schnittman teamed up with fellow Goddard scientist Brian Powell and used the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. The project generated about 10 terabytes of data — equivalent to roughly half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress — and took about 5 days running on just 0.3% of Discover’s 129,000 processors. The same feat would take more than a decade on a typical laptop.
The destination is a supermassive black hole with 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun, equivalent to the monster located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
“If you have the choice, you want to fall into a supermassive black hole,” Schnittman explained. “Stellar-mass black holes, which contain up to about 30 solar masses, possess much smaller event horizons and stronger tidal forces, which can rip apart approaching objects before they get to the horizon.”
This occurs because the gravitational pull on the end of an object nearer the black hole is much stronger than that on the other end. Infalling objects stretch out like noodles, a process astrophysicists call spaghettification.
The simulated black hole’s event horizon spans about 16 million miles (25 million kilometers), or about 17% of the distance from Earth to the Sun. A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds it and serves as a visual reference during the fall. So do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times. A backdrop of the starry sky as seen from Earth completes the scene.
Tour an alternative visualization that tracks a camera as it approaches, falls toward, briefly orbits, and escapes a supermassive black hole. This immersive 360-degree version allows viewers to look around during the flight. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellView the flyby explainer on YouTube
As the camera approaches the black hole, reaching speeds ever closer to that of light itself, the glow from the accretion disk and background stars becomes amplified in much the same way as the sound of an oncoming racecar rises in pitch. Their light appears brighter and whiter when looking into the direction of travel.
The movies begin with the camera located nearly 400 million miles (640 million kilometers) away, with the black hole quickly filling the view. Along the way, the black hole’s disk, photon rings, and the night sky become increasingly distorted — and even form multiple images as their light traverses the increasingly warped space-time.
In real time, the camera takes about 3 hours to fall to the event horizon, executing almost two complete 30-minute orbits along the way. But to anyone observing from afar, it would never quite get there. As space-time becomes ever more distorted closer to the horizon, the image of the camera would slow and then seem to freeze just shy of it. This is why astronomers originally referred to black holes as “frozen stars.”
At the event horizon, even space-time itself flows inward at the speed of light, the cosmic speed limit. Once inside it, both the camera and the space-time in which it’s moving rush toward the black hole’s center — a one-dimensional point called a singularity, where the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate.
“Once the camera crosses the horizon, its destruction by spaghettification is just 12.8 seconds away,” Schnittman said. From there, it’s only 79,500 miles (128,000 kilometers) to the singularity. This final leg of the voyage is over in the blink of an eye.
In the alternative scenario, the camera orbits close to the event horizon but it never crosses over and escapes to safety. If an astronaut flew a spacecraft on this 6-hour round trip while her colleagues on a mothership remained far from the black hole, she’d return 36 minutes younger than her colleagues. That’s because time passes more slowly near a strong gravitational source and when moving near the speed of light.
“This situation can be even more extreme,” Schnittman noted. “If the black hole were rapidly rotating, like the one shown in the 2014 movie ‘Interstellar,’ she would return many years younger than her shipmates.”
Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Astrophysics
- Black Holes
- Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes
- Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Supermassive Black Holes
- The Universe
This new visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping…
Article
5 years ago 4 min read New NASA Visualization Probes the Light-bending Dance of Binary Black Holes
A pair of orbiting black holes millions of times the Sun’s mass perform a hypnotic…
Article
3 years ago 4 min read NASA Animation Sizes Up the Universe’s Biggest Black Holes
Editor’s Note May 3, 2023: The video in the feature was updated to make a…
Article
1 year ago 4 min read NASA Visualization Rounds Up the Best-Known Black Hole Systems
Nearby black holes and their stellar companions form an astrophysical rogues’ gallery in this new…
Article
2 years ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
Black holes scramble information – but may not be the best at it
Hubble Views a Galaxy with a Voracious Black Hole
2 min read
Hubble Views a Galaxy with a Voracious Black Hole This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 4951, located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth.
Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4951.
Located in the Virgo constellation, NGC 4951 is located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth. It’s classified as a Seyfert galaxy, which means that it’s an extremely energetic type of galaxy with an active galactic nucleus (AGN). However, Seyfert galaxies are unique from other sorts of AGNs because the galaxy itself can still be clearly seen – different types of AGNs are so bright that it’s nearly impossible to observe the actual galaxy that they reside within.
AGNs like NGC 4951 are powered by supermassive black holes. As matter whirls into the black hole, it generates radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, making the AGN shine brightly.
Hubble helped prove that supermassive black holes exist at the core of almost every galaxy in our universe. Before the telescope launched into low-Earth orbit in 1990, astronomers only theorized about their existence. The mission verified their existence by observing the undeniable effects of black holes, like jets of material ejecting from black holes and disks of gas and dust revolving around those black holes at very high speeds.
These observations of NGC 4951 were taken to provide valuable data for astronomers studying how galaxies evolve, with a particular focus on the star formation process. Hubble gathered this information, which is being combined with observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to support a JWST Treasury program. Treasury programs collect observations that focus on the potential to solve multiple scientific problems with a single, coherent dataset and enable a variety of compelling scientific investigations.
Download this image
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
- Astrophysics
- Astrophysics Division
- Galaxies
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Missions
- Spiral Galaxies
- The Universe
Hubble Hunts Visible Light Sources of X-Rays
2 min read
Hubble Hunts Visible Light Sources of X-Rays This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf galaxy IC 776. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf galaxy IC 776. This swirling collection of new and old stars is located in the constellation Virgo, in the Virgo galaxy cluster, 100 million light-years from Earth. Although IC 776 is a dwarf galaxy, it’s also classified as a SAB-type or ‘weakly barred’ spiral. This highly detailed Hubble view demonstrates that complexity. IC 776 has a ragged, disturbed disc that appears to spiral around the core with arcs of star-forming regions.
The image is from an observation program dedicated to the study of dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster that is searching for the visible light emissions from sources of X-rays in these galaxies. X-rays are often emitted by accretion discs, where material that is drawn into a compact object by gravity crashes together and forms a hot, glowing disc. The compact object can be a white dwarf or neutron star in a binary pair that is stealing material from its companion star, or it can be the supermassive black hole at the heart of a galaxy devouring material around it. Dwarf galaxies like IC 776, traveling through the Virgo cluster, experience pressure from intergalactic gas that is similar to the pressure you feel from air hitting your face when you ride a bicycle. This intergalactic gas pressure can both stimulate star formation and feed the central black hole in a galaxy. As more material swirls down toward the black hole, it creates an energetic accretion disc, hot enough to emit X-rays.
While Hubble is not able to see X-rays, it can coordinate with X-ray telescopes such as NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, revealing the sources of this radiation in high resolution using visible light. Dwarf galaxies are very important to our understanding of cosmology and the evolution of galaxies. As with many areas of astronomy, the ability to examine these galaxies across the electromagnetic spectrum is critical to their study.
Text Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Download this image
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
- Astrophysics
- Astrophysics Division
- Galaxies
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Missions
- Spiral Galaxies
- The Universe
Chandra Spacecraft and Instruments
Never mind little green men: life on other planets might be purple
Nature, Published online: 02 May 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01261-8
Bacteria that make food using a compound other than chlorophyll could paint other planets in a wide range of colours.Dark energy is tearing the Universe apart. What if the force is weakening?
Nature, Published online: 03 May 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01273-4
The first set of results from a pioneering cosmic-mapping project hints that the repulsive force known as dark energy has changed over 11 billion years, which would alter ideas about how the Universe has evolved and what its future will be.The shift to LED lighting is stopping us from seeing our night skies
Mysterious space signals may come from a dead star with a planet
China is sending its Chang’e 6 spacecraft to the far side of the moon
Looking for tsunami clues in the skies above Paranal with OASIS
As part of a collaboration between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and ESO, the Observations of Airglow with Spectrometer and Imager Systems (OASIS) project has officially joined the ranks of ESO’s Paranal Observatory. Best known for hosting world-leading astronomical observatories, like ESO’s Very Large Telescope, Paranal also happens to be ideally suited for certain atmospheric observations. Operated by DLR and hosted by ESO, OASIS aims to show that monitoring “airglow” in our atmosphere has potential to provide early warnings for tsunamis.
Tsunamis, giant waves caused mostly by earthquakes under the sea, are a destructive force of nature that can result in a significant loss of life and damage to infrastructure. OASIS aims to show that it is possible to mitigate some of the impacts of these natural hazards by monitoring our atmosphere. Earthquakes generate sound waves that travel upwards through the atmosphere. These perturbations affect the so-called airglow or nightglow — the natural emission of molecules high up in the atmosphere. OASIS will monitor this airglow, specifically the emission from hydroxyl molecules at a height of around 86 km, which could eventually be used to issue tsunami early warnings.
Paranal is uniquely suited to observing the atmosphere due to its special environmental and climate conditions. Chile’s Atacama Desert, where Paranal is located, boasts a uniquely dry climate ideal for both astronomical and atmospheric observations. Chile is also close to two tectonic plate boundaries that often produce strong earthquakes, including some that generate tsunamis.
As a side effect of monitoring airglow on a given night, OASIS also has the potential to benefit its neighbouring telescopes. Airglow appears as a dim glow that prevents the night sky from being entirely dark, which can affect observations from ground-based telescopes. While methods exist to account for it, airglow is a complex and constantly changing phenomenon. The regular airglow monitoring data OASIS will collect could be used to help forecast the airglow brightness on a given night, with potential to eventually help ESO better account for airglow in astronomical observations and optimise the use of telescope time.
The inauguration of OASIS took place late last week, more than a year after the first test observations were obtained by OASIS instruments. As part of the inauguration event, DLR and ESO staff came together at Paranal for general presentations on the project followed by a roundtable discussion on cooperation opportunities.
What China’s mission to collect rocks from the far side could reveal about the Moon
Nature, Published online: 30 April 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-01056-x
The Chang’e-6 mission aims to land in the Moon’s oldest and largest crater, collect rocks, and bring them back to Earth.The Horse’s Mane
This image of part of the Horsehead Nebula, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and released on April 29, 2024, shows the nebula in a whole new light, capturing the region’s complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. Located roughly 1,300 light-years away, the nebula formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material, and glows because it is illuminated by a nearby hot star. The gas clouds surrounding the Horsehead have already dissipated, but the jutting pillar is made of thick clumps of material and therefore is harder to erode. Astronomers estimate that the Horsehead has about 5 million years left before it too disintegrates.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, K. Misselt (University of Arizona) and A. Abergel (IAS/University Paris-Saclay, CNRS)
UN Women Executive Director Visits ESO in Chile and Reinforces STEM Collaboration
On Monday, April 29th, a delegation from UN Women, an organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, visited the European Southern Observatory (ESO) offices in Santiago, Chile, to further advance the inclusion of women in astronomical observatories and Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
The delegation, headed by Sima Sami Bahous, UN Women's Executive Director, and María Noel Vaeza, UN Women's Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean, was received by Bárbara Nuñez, ESO Regional Relations Officer and Luis Chavarría, ESO Representative in Chile. Bahous also met virtually with Xavier Barcons, ESO Director General, and part of the team of the Chilean Non-Governmental Organisation Ingeniosas, which promotes and supports the inclusion of young girls into STEM fields.
During the meeting, the delegations discussed the outcomes of the Memorandum of Understanding between ESO and UN Women, signed in 2020 and renewed earlier this year. This collaboration aims to promote science and engineering among girls and adolescents, empower marginalised women in Chile through training and education, and advocate for adopting and implementing the Women Empowerment Principles.
In 2021, ESO and UN Women launched a training program focused on telescope optical maintenance for professional astronomical observatories, targeting women in the Antofagasta Region. This initiative enhanced women's technical skills and increased job opportunities in traditionally male-dominated fields. Following a selection process, three participants were hired by ESO through the LINKES contractor and are now employed in operations at ESO’s Paranal Observatory.
Over the next three years, ESO and UN Women will replicate this successful program with young girls and women from Antofagasta technical schools, focusing on underprivileged communities. Additionally, they will collaborate with educational institutions and students to encourage women to pursue educational and employment opportunities in STEM while also working to eliminate gender stereotypes.
Hubble Spots a Magnificent Barred Galaxy
The magnificent central bar of NGC 2217 (also known as AM 0619-271) shines bright in the constellation of Canis Major (The Greater Dog), in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Roughly 65 million light-years from Earth, this barred spiral galaxy is a similar size to our Milky Way at 100,000 light-years across. Many stars are concentrated in its central region forming the luminous bar, surrounded by a set of tightly wound spiral arms.
The central bar in these types of galaxies plays an important role in their evolution, helping to funnel gas from the disk into the middle of the galaxy. The transported gas and dust are then either formed into new stars or fed to the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Weighing from a few hundred to over a billion times the mass of our Sun, supermassive black holes are present in almost all large galaxies.
This image was colorized with data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS).
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov