NGC 1068: A spiral galaxy about 50 million light years from Earth containing a supermassive black hole.
Caption: This composite image (X-rays from Chandra in red, optical data in green, and radio emission in blue) shows NGC 1068, one of the nearest and brightest spiral galaxies containing a rapidly growing supermassive black hole. The X-ray images and spectra obtained using Chandra's High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer show that a strong wind is being driven away from the center of NGC 1068 at a rate of about a million miles per hour. These results help explain how an "average"-sized supermassive black hole can alter the evolution of its host galaxy.
Scale: Image is
1.0 arcmin across (about 15,000 light years across)
Chandra X-ray Observatory
ACIS Image
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