All articles tagged with #ic 486
The Hubble Space Telescope images IC 486, a barred spiral galaxy about 380 million light-years from Earth, showcasing its soft glow, winding spiral arms, and a bright core powered by a supermassive black hole (an active galactic nucleus). The feature that defines IC 486—a central bar structure—appears in roughly two-thirds of spiral galaxies, and the image highlights both the galaxy’s structure and its energetic center.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a striking image of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486, about 380 million light-years away, revealing an active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole over 100 million solar masses. The AGN outshines much of the galaxy and its accretion disk heats surrounding gas, offering a window into how galaxies grow and evolve and how bars funnel gas to fuel star formation and nuclear activity.
A new Hubble image of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486, about 380 million light-years away, shows vivid regions of new star formation around the central bar and the bright active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole, highlighting how barred structures influence galactic growth; citizen scientists via Galaxy Zoo contributed to the study under ESA/Hubble.