File:Lasers and supermassive black holes UGC 6093.jpg
Original file (3,918 × 2,052 pixels, file size: 2.78 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
This file is from Wikimedia Commons (production) and may be used by other projects. The description on its file description page there is shown below.
Summary
DescriptionLasers and supermassive black holes UGC 6093.jpg |
English: This image, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), shows a galaxy named UGC 6093. As can be easily seen, UGC 6093 is something known as a barred spiral galaxy — it has beautiful arms that swirl outwards from a bar slicing through the galaxy’s centre. It is classified as an active galaxy, which means that it hosts an active galactic nucleus, or AGN: a compact region at a galaxy’s centre within which material is dragged towards a supermassive black hole. As this black hole devours the surrounding matter it emits intense radiation, causing it to shine brightly.
But UGC 6093 is more exotic still. The galaxy essentially acts as a giant astronomical laser that spews out light at microwave, not visible, wavelengths — this type of object is dubbed a megamaser (maser being the term for a microwave laser). Megamasers such as UGC 6093 can be some 100 million times brighter than masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. Hubble’s WFC3 observes light spanning a range wavelengths — from the near-infrared, through the visible range, to the near-ultraviolet. It has two channels that detect and process different light, allowing astronomers to study a remarkable range of astrophysical phenomena; for example, the UV-visible channel can study galaxies undergoing massive star formation, while the near-infrared channel can study redshifted light from galaxies in the distant Universe. Such multi-band imaging makes Hubble invaluable in studying megamaser galaxies, as it is able to untangle their intriguing complexity. |
Date | |
Source | http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1801a/ |
Author | ESA/Hubble & NASA |
Licensing
ESA/Hubble images, videos and web texts are released by the ESA under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided they are clearly and visibly credited. Detailed conditions are below; see the ESA copyright statement for full information. For images created by NASA or on the hubblesite.org website, or for ESA/Hubble images on the esahubble.org site before 2009, use the {{PD-Hubble}} tag.
Conditions:
Notes:
|
- You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
- Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Items portrayed in this file
depicts
some value
1 January 2018
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 14:30, 1 January 2018 | 3,918 × 2,052 (2.78 MB) | wikimediacommons>Jmencisom | User created page with UploadWizard |
File usage
Metadata
This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.
If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.
Credit/Provider | ESA/Hubble & NASA |
---|---|
Source | ESA/Hubble |
Short title |
|
Image title |
|
Usage terms |
|
Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 1 January 2018 |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 15:02, 9 June 2017 |
Date and time of digitizing | 23:21, 19 January 2017 |
Date metadata was last modified | 17:02, 9 June 2017 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:2a6ef509-0161-1b4b-91e3-3e7f18ac9f9a |
Keywords | UGC 6093 |
Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, , D-85748 Germany |
IIM version | 4 |