SPIRAL GALAXY M51 FULL

The dusty ring confines the radiation from the accretion disk so that it can only escape through the 'donut hole' of the torus as a pair of oppositely-directed cones of light. This accretion disk buried deep inside the torus is presumably the source of the ionizing radiation. The edge-on torus, estimated to be 100 light-years across, hides the black hole and its disk of infalling hot gas. 'The safest interpretation is that the slash is a caution sign, showing that we do not yet fully understand what is happening in the center of M51,' says Ford.

The dust in this linear feature could be a second disk seen edge on, or possibly rotating gas and dust in M5l interacting with the jets and ionization cones. The second bar of the 'X' is both interesting and puzzling.

'This suggests that the dark band in the 'X', which is perpendicular to the ionization cone, may be a rotating torus of cold gas and dust seen edge-on,' says Ford. This double cone 'searchlight' is bisected by the widest bar of the dark 'X'. The pictures reveal an hour-glass structure formed by two bright beacons of light that are so energetic they cause interstellar gas caught in their beams to glow through ionization. The new HST images now offer the best glimpse yet of the near-vicinity of the 'powerhouse' driving these fireworks. Ground-based observations also show a pair of radio and corresponding optical 'bubbles' which form a double-lobed structure across the nucleus. Hot ionized gas in the center of M51 is moving at speeds of up to two million miles per hour. Previous observations made with both radio and optical telescopes have revealed energetic activity in the core of the galaxy. M51 is especially noteworthy because its well-defined spiral arms are unusually bright, and the end of one of the spiral arms projects across a small, dusty and distorted satellite galaxy. The galaxy is spectacular because it is tilted nearly face-on to Earth, allowing for an unobstructed view of its the bright core.

SPIRAL GALAXY M51 FULL

If these ideas are correct, M51 provides the first direct view of a torus which both fuels a massive black hole and hides the hole from direct view from anyone outside the ionization cone Ĭommonly called the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51 is one of the nearest and brightest galaxies, having an angular diameter 1/3rd the width of the Full Moon. The 'X' is due to absorption by dust and marks the exact position of the nuclear black hole,' says Ford.

'Pictures of M5l taken with the Planetary Camera show a striking, dark 'X' silhouetted across the nucleus. Holland Ford (Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute), and his Faint Object Spectrograph Team co-investigators at the 180th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Columbus, Ohio. These observations are being reported by Dr. Even more surprising is the discovery of a secondary ring or dust lane which is contrary to all expectations. Surprisingly, they found that the ring is standing almost perpendicular to the relatively flat spiral galaxy, like a top spinning on its side with respect to the floor. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with what may be their first direct view of an immense ring of dust which fuels a massive black hole at the heart of the spiral galaxy M51, located 20 million light-years away.

Spiral galaxy m51