NASA captures NEW celestial OBJECT [WATCH]

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.

ALSO READ: Massive asteroid to pass Earth THIS WEEKEND

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.

ALSO READ: Africa continues to split – new ocean may appear

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.

ALSO READ: NASA’s Orion spacecraft enters lunar orbit

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.