The beauty of a breathtaking spiral galaxy.”M61″ of “Virgo” taken by Hubble & VLT | sorae Portal site to space

This is about 52 million light-years away in the direction of “Virgo”Spiral galaxy “M61”It is a close-up of. The M61 is almost in front of the Earth, brightly shining in the centerGalactic bulgeAnd spread around itSwirl armIt is in a positional relationship that makes it easy to observe. In this image, which uses not only visible light visible to the human eye but also near-infrared and ultraviolet observation data,Young and hot blue starsThe swirl arm whereIt looks like it is colored redIs drawn.

This red partHII areaIt is called by the ultraviolet rays emitted by young stars.Ionized hydrogen gasShinesEmission nebulais.This is a collection of gas and dustHigh-density molecular cloudInA new star is bornBecause it is also a place to doStar formation fieldAlso called.M61, which has many HII regions, has intense star-forming activity.Starburst galaxyIt is also classified as.

Also, although not captured in the image, it is also in the center of the M61, like many other galaxies.Supermassive black holeIs believed to exist.According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the M61Mass is more than 5 million times that of the sunIt is believed that there is a black hole in.By the way, a supermassive black hole lurking in the center of the Milky Way galaxy“Sagittarius A * (Aster)”The mass of the M61 is said to be about 4 million times that of the Sun, so it seems that the supermassive black hole of M61 is about one size larger than that of the Milky Way galaxy.

The image at the beginning is“Hubble” Space Telescope“Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)” and the European Southern Observatory at the Paranal Observatory in Chile“Very Large Telescope (VLT)”It was created from the observation data of the observation device “FORS2”, and was released by ESA on April 5, 2021 as this week’s “Spiral Snapshot” of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Related: Star-forming activity that causes invisible strong winds. Spiral galaxy “NGC 4666” photographed by Hubble

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESO, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
Source: ESA / Hubble
Sentence / Takehiro Matsumura