New Discoveries in Old Galaxy
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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
- 2019 Hubble image of galaxy Messier 105: NASA, ESA, C. Sarazin et al.
- 1997 Hubble image of galaxy Messier 105: NASA, ESA, Karl Gebhardt (University of Michigan) and Tod Lauer (NOAO)
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A white line moves through colorful images of space.
Text: News from the Universe.
July 15, 2024. New Discoveries in Old Galaxy. Hubble, 2019.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed surprises about galaxy M105, which was first discovered in 1781.
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Hubble measurements showed stars near the galaxy's center are moving very rapidly, indicating that they are orbiting a supermassive black hole.
The black hole is active, meaning that matter is falling into it and releasing huge amounts of energy, causing the galaxy's center to shine much brighter than its surroundings.
Hubble also revealed some young stars in M105, though the galaxy was thought to have very little of the dense dust clouds needed to form new stars.
Astronomers now think that M105 has a very low star formation rate, with just enough gas to form a clutch of low-mass stars every 10,000 years.
This news was brought to you in part by the European Space Agency (ESA).