The Hubble Space Telescope has been used to capture a stunning image of a cosmic hurricane, showing off a celestial 'eye'.
The image is of a spiral galaxy dubbed NGC 5728 that's located around 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Libra. NGC 5728 is a Seyfert galaxy, which means it has an active nucleus at its center. According to Space.com, at the center of this galaxy, there is a black hole that has lots of gas and dust surrounding it, causing it to be bright.
This galaxy is more than meets the eye… 👁️
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) October 1, 2021
Seen in infrared and visible light, the galaxy NGC 5728 has an elegant appearance in this #HubbleFriday view.
But it’s really a Seyfert galaxy, an energetic class of galaxies known as active galactic nuclei: https://t.co/BhQOSUVY8H pic.twitter.com/NpvYnzYHox
The image was released by the European Space Agency, which co-operates the Hubble Space Telescope with NASA. According to European Space Agency, "As this image shows, NGC 5728 is clearly observable, and at optical and infrared wavelengths it looks quite normal. It is fascinating to know that the galaxy's center is emitting vast amounts of light in parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that WFC3 [Wide Field Camera 3] just isn't sensitive to!"