Astronomy - Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2017 January 9

In the Center of Spiral Galaxy NGC 5033 
 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble,MAST - Processing: Judy Schmidt Explanation: What's happening in the center of spiral NGC 5033? Many things -- some circular, some energetic, and some not well understood. NGC 5033 is known as aSeyfert galaxy because of the great activity seen in its nucleus. Brightstars, dark dust, and interstellar gasall swirl quickly around a galactic center that appears slightly offset from a supermassive black hole. This offset is thought to be the result ofNGC 5033 merging with another galaxy sometime in the past billion years. The featured image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005. NGC 5033 spans about 100,000light years and is so far away that we see it only as it existed about 40 million years ago.