The Hubble Space Telescope, jointly operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), stands as one of the most adept “planet hunters” in the sky. The Hubble has captured a close-up view of one of the brightest objects in the Virgo constellation.
This image has been released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble mission.
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Close-up of the Galaxy Messier 100 Housing a “Monstrous” Black Hole – Photo: NASA/ESA
The object is so massive that it appears as a luminous patch even through small-sized astronomical lenses, despite being located around 50 million light-years away. This is a galaxy named Messier 100, situated within the Coma Berenices constellation. From Earth’s perspective, this constellation appears as a dazzling entity held within the hand of Virgo.
Though discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, it is the first time humans have been able to witness its details up close, including its intense spiraling pattern. This is because, according to analysis, the intensely bright central region of Messier 100 houses a “monstrous” black hole, with an exceedingly large size, voraciously consuming surrounding matter at a remarkable speed. It is this rapid feeding process of the black hole that emits the brilliant light we observe.
Messier 100 itself is a considerably large galaxy, with a diameter stretching up to 107,000 light-years. In contrast, our Milky Way galaxy, where Earth resides, is also sizable, yet its diameter measures only about 52,850 light-years.
This fresh image was captured using the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The telescope has faced some glitches leading to temporary halts in its operations recently, but it has now been repaired by NASA and continues its mission of “hunting” celestial objects.