Hubble Telescope Reveals Stunning Spiral Galaxy NGC 5643 and Its Hidden X-Ray Mystery
The galaxy, located 40 million light-years away, features an active supermassive black hole and an unexpectedly brighter X-ray source from a smaller black hole.
- The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a detailed image of the grand design spiral galaxy NGC 5643, located in the constellation Lupus, 40 million light-years from Earth.
- The galaxy's spiral arms are outlined by bright-blue young stars, reddish-brown dust clouds, and pink star-forming regions, with new wavelengths highlighting heated gas from young stars.
- NGC 5643 hosts an active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole, emitting radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, particularly in X-rays.
- Surprisingly, the galaxy's brightest X-ray source is not the supermassive black hole but NGC 5643 X-1, a smaller black hole about 30 times the Sun's mass, interacting with a companion star.
- These findings, supported by data from ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory, provide insights into black hole activity and star formation processes in distant galaxies.
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