                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
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                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 November 16

                           In the Arms of NGC 1097
              Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby, Mark Hanson

   Explanation: Spiral galaxy NGC 1097 shines in southern skies, about 45
   million light-years away in the heated constellation Fornax. Its blue
   spiral arms are mottled with pinkish star forming regions in this
   colorful galaxy portrait. They seem to have wrapped around a small
   companion galaxy above and right of center, about 40,000 light-years
   from the spiral's luminous core. That's not NGC 1097's only peculiar
   feature, though. This very deep exposure hints of faint, mysterious
   jets, seen to extend well beyond the bluish arms. In fact, four faint
   jets are ultimately recognized in optical images of NGC 1097. The jets
   trace an X centered on the galaxy's nucleus, but probably don't
   originate there. Instead, they could be fossil star streams, trails
   left over from the capture and disruption of a much smaller galaxy in
   the large spiral's ancient past. A Seyfert galaxy, NGC 1097's nucleus
   also harbors a supermassive black hole.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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