NGC 1097, A Seyfert Galaxy

NGC 1097, Spiral galaxy NGC 1097 shines in southern skies, about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. Its blue spiral arms are mottled with pinkish star forming regions. They seem to have wrapped around a small companion galaxy in the upper right, about 40,000 light-years from the spiral’s luminous core. That’s not NGC 1097’s only peculiar feature, though. The very deep exposure hints of faint, mysterious jets, most easily seen to extend well beyond the bluish arms toward the left. In fact, four faint jets are ultimately recognized in  images of NGC 1097 although only one is visible in this image going straight up from the middle of the galaxy. The jets are centered on the galaxy’s nucleus, but probably don’t originate there. Instead, they could be fossil star streams, trails left over from the capture and disruption of a much smaller galaxy in the large spiral’s ancient past. A Seyfert galaxy,  NGC 1097’s nucleus  harbors a supermassive black hole. A Seyfert galaxy is a type of spiral galaxy with a core that shines with intense brightness. Named after astronomer Carl Seyfert, these galaxies feature active galactic nuclei powered by supermassive black holes, releasing huge amounts of energy, infrared radiation, and X-rays, yet their surrounding host galaxies remain clearly visible.