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Eso_potw1822a_1024

eso_potw1822a May 28th, 2018

Credit: ESO/A. Alonso-Herrero et al.; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

This ESO Picture of the Week shows the centre of a galaxy named NGC 5643. This galaxy is located 55 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lupus (The Wolf), and is known as a Seyfert galaxy. Seyfert galaxies have very luminous centres — thought to be powered by material being accreted onto a supermassive black hole lurking within — that can also be shrouded and obscured by clouds of dust and intergalactic material. As a result, it can be difficult to observe the active centre of a Seyfert galaxy. NGC 5643 poses a further challenge; it is viewed at a high inclination, making it even trickier to view its inner workings. However, scientists have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) together with archival data from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope to reveal this view of NGC 5643 — complete with energetic outflowing ionised gas pouring out into space. These impressive outflows stretch out on either side of the galaxy, and are caused by matter being ejected from the accretion disc of the supermassive black hole at NGC 5643’s core. Combined, the ALMA and VLT data show the galaxy’s central region to have two distinct components: a spiraling, rotating disc (visible in red) consisting of cold molecular gas traced by carbon monoxide, and the outflowing gas, traced by ionised oxygen and hydrogen (in blue-orange hues) perpendicular to the inner nuclear disc.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1822a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 5643
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Activity > AGN > Seyfert
Eso_potw1822a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 14h 32m 40.6s
DEC = -44° 10’ 28.0”
Orientation
North is 0.1° CW
Field of View
0.7 x 0.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Lupus

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red ALMA (Band 6) Millimeter (CO(2-1)) 1.3 mm
Orange VLT (MUSE) Optical (H-alpha) 656.3 nm
Blue VLT (MUSE) Optical (OIII) 495.9 nm
Spectrum_ir1
Red
Orange
Blue
Eso_potw1822a_1280
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ID
potw1822a
Subject Category
C.5.3.2.2  
Subject Name
NGC 5643
Credits
ESO/A. Alonso-Herrero et al.; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
Release Date
2018-05-28T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1822a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
Band 6, MUSE, MUSE
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Blue
Band
Millimeter, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
CO(2-1), H-alpha, OIII
Central Wavelength
1292208, 656.3, 495.9
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
218.16916588, -44.1744530789
Reference Dimension
804.0, 484.0
Reference Pixel
402.0, 242.0
Scale
-1.41246736727e-05, 1.41246736727e-05
Rotation
-0.11999999999996271
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw1822a
Metadata Date
2018-05-24T15:22:17+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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