Hubble Space Telescope Image of Galaxies (IMAGE)

University of Utah

Hubble Space Telescope Image of Galaxies

Caption

This Hubble Space telescope image shows the gargantuan galaxy M60 in the center, and the ultracompact dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1 below it and to the right, and also enlarged as an inset. A new international study led by University of Utah astronomer Anil Seth and published in the journal Nature found that M60-UCD1 is the smallest known galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center, suggesting the dwarf galaxy originally was much larger but was stripped of its outer layers by gravity from galaxy M60 over billions of years. M60's gravity also is pulling galaxy NGC4647, upper right, and the two eventually will collide. (NOTE: for a version of this photo with the galaxy names labeled, email lee.siegel@utah.edu.)

Credit

NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute/European Space Agency.

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