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Back Fireworks near Galaxy NGC 4151

Fireworks near Galaxy NGC 4151


Depicts: NGC 4151, IRAS 12080+3941
Copyright: John Hutchings (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), Bruce Woodgate (GSFC/NASA), Mary Beth Kaiser (Johns Hopkins University), Steven Kraemer(Catholic University of America), and the STIS Team

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) simultaneously records, in unprecedented detail, the velocities of hundreds of gas knots streaming at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour from the nucleus of NGC 4151, thought to house a supermassive black hole.

This is the first time the velocity structure in the heart of this object, or similar objects, has been mapped so vividly this close to its central black hole.

Last Update: 1 September 2019
16-May-2026 00:00 UT

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