NASA’s Hubble snapped a new image of a mysterious object located approximately 390 million light years away from Earth.
By: Keliah Daniels
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a mysterious celestial object in the constellation Lyra.
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OBJECT DUBBED Z 229-15 BY NASA
The object is called Z 229-15.
The image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows Z 229-15, which looks like a spiral galaxy, but NASA said it is far from it. According to a statement by the European Space Agency (ESA), the object fits many classifications.
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NASA reported that the object can be classified as an active galactic nucleus (an AGN), sometimes as a quasar, and sometimes as a Seyfert galaxy.
An AGN is a small region at the heart of certain galaxies, that is extremely bright. Quasars are a type of AGN, as they are also very bright, but further from the Earth. Seyfert galaxies are active galaxies that host very bright AGNs.
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Z 229-15 CLASSIFIES AS SEYFERT GALAXY
With all the information given, 229-15 technically classifies as a Seyfert galaxy with a quasar-‘subclass’ AGN.
Z 229-15 is very bright in the center. So, given that it’s 390 million light-years away from Earth, it’s also far enough away to be considered a quasar.
ESA, which co-manages Hubble with NASA, calls it, “everything, in one place, all at once”, which may a reference to this year’s Academy Awards Best Picture winner.
Hubble also got attention around the world with a relatively new image of a globular galaxy known as Messier 55. This galaxy is 20 000 light years from Earth and is estimated to contain 100 000 stars of 55 various types and brightness.
