Seyfert Galaxy NGC 7742
Explanation:
This might resemble a fried egg you've had
for breakfast, but it's
actually much larger.
In fact, ringed by blue-tinted
star forming regions and
faintly visible
spiral arms,
the yolk-yellow center of this face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 7742,
is about 3,000 light-years across.
About 72 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus,
NGC 7742 is known to be
a Seyfert galaxy - a type of
active spiral galaxy with a center or nucleus which is very bright
at visible wavelengths.
Across the spectrum,
the
tremendous brightness of Seyferts can change over periods of
just days to months and galaxies like NGC 7742 are
suspected of harboring
massive black holes at their cores.
This beautiful color picture is courtesy of the newly inaugurated
Hubble Space Telescope Heritage Project.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
