Tag Archive for 'M77'

An artist’s concept of Messier 77, featuring its powerful black hole and accretion disk, and never before seen polarization in water masers outside of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NSF / AUI / NRAO / S. Dagnello.

Astronomers Spot Magnetic Filaments in Accretion Disk around Messier 77’s Central Black Hole

Dec 11, 2024 by News Staff

Messier 77 is a well-known, relatively nearby, bright spiral galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center. An artist’s concept of Messier 77,...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77, which lies in the constellation Cetus, about 62 million light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

IceCube Observatory Detects High-Energy Neutrinos from Messier 77

Nov 6, 2022 by News Staff

Messier 77, also known as NGC 1068, LEDA 10266 and Cetus A, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Cetus. This image shows the barred spiral...

Magnetic fields in the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as M77 and NGC 1086, are shown as streamlines over a visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The magnetic fields align along the entire length of the massive spiral arms of Messier 77, implying that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy’s shape are also compressing the its magnetic field. This supports the leading theory of how the spiral arms are forced into their iconic shape known as ‘density wave theory.’ SOFIA studied the galaxy using far-infrared light (89 microns) to reveal facets of its magnetic fields that previous observations using visible and radio telescopes could not detect. Image credit: NASA / SOFIA / JPL-Caltech / Roma Tre University.

Magnetic Fields Play Important Role in Shaping Spiral Galaxies

Dec 11, 2019 by News Staff

New infrared observations from NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) of Messier 77, a spiral galaxy located 47 million light-years...

Artist’s impression of the dusty gaseous torus around an active supermassive black hole. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

ALMA Spots Rotating Dusty Gaseous Torus around Messier 77’s Central Black Hole

Feb 15, 2018 by News Staff

High resolution observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed the presence of a rotating dusty gaseous torus...