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