M106 Across the Spectrum
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the
Day
The spiral arms of
bright, active galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multi-wavelength
portrait, composed of image data from radio to X-rays, across the electromagnetic
spectrum.
Also known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward
the northern constellation Canes Venatici.
The well-measured distance to M106
is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 60,000 light-years
across.
Typical in grand spiral
galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful star clusters, and star forming regions trace spiral arms that
converge on a bright nucleus.
But this composite
highlights two anomalous
arms in radio (purple) and X-ray (blue) that seem to arise in the
central region of M106, evidence of
energetic jets of material blasting into the galaxy's disk. The jets are likely
powered by matter falling into a massive
central black hole.
Image Credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / Caltech / P.Ogle et al.,
Optical - NASA/STScI, IR - NASA/JPL-Caltech, Radio - NSF/NRAO/VLA
