The Hubble telescope captured a “grand” spiral galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the spiral galaxy NGC 5643, which is located approximately 40 million light-years from Earth.

This was reported by the European Space Agency.

It is called the Grand Spiral because it features two large, winding spiral arms dotted with bright blue stars, lacy reddish-brown dust clouds, and pink star-forming regions.

Ultraviolet and X-ray images and spectra of NGC 5643 suggest that the galaxy has an active galactic core that is powered by a supermassive black hole. When the latter captures gas from space, it gathers into a disk that heats up to hundreds of thousands of degrees. Superheated gas glows brightly throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, but especially at X-ray wavelengths.

However, the active galactic nucleus NGC 5643 is not the brightest source of X-ray radiation in the galaxy. There is another object on the outskirts of the galaxy called NGC 5643 X-1. What is it? So far it is not known exactly. Researchers suggest it could be a black hole about 30 times the mass of the Sun locked in an orbital dance with a companion star. The black hole grabs gas from its companion star, creating a superheated disk and obscuring the center of the galaxy.

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