Tag Archive for 'Messier 77'

This Hubble image shows Messier 77, a barred spiral galaxy some 62 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instruments. It is based on data obtained through six filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L.C. Ho / D. Thilker.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps New Image of Messier 77

Apr 14, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released an incredibly beautiful image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. This Hubble image shows Messier...

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...

Astronomers Find Obscuring Dust Ring around Supermassive Black Hole in Messier 77

Feb 17, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment (MATISSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer have spotted a dense,...

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...

An artist’s impression of the center of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. ALMA discovered two counter-rotating flows of gas around the black hole. The colors in this image represent the motion of the gas: blue is material moving toward us, red is moving away. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Counter-Rotating Disks around Supermassive Black Hole in Messier 77

Oct 17, 2019 by News Staff

Supermassive black holes, millions to billions of times the mass of our Sun, are found at the centers of galaxies. Many of these enormous objects are hidden...

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...

Very Large Telescope Takes Close Look at Messier 77

Jul 7, 2017 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the spiral galaxy Messier 77. This image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77; the streaks of red and blue in the image highlight pockets of star formation along the pinwheeling arms, with dark dust lanes stretching across the galaxy’s starry center; the galaxy belongs to a class of galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies, which have highly ionized gas surrounding an intensely active center. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. van der Hoeven.

ALMA Finds Cosmic Fountain at Center of Messier 77

Sep 20, 2016 by News Staff

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77; the streaks of red and blue in the image highlight pockets of star formation along the pinwheeling...