What's happening in the center of this galaxy? Close inspection of the center of NGC 4438 , as visible in this recently released representative-color image by the Hubble Space Telescope , reveals an unusual bubble of hot gas, colored in red. Astronomers speculate that this strange bubble was created by a massive central black hole that resides there. As gas swirls around the black hole , gravity and friction pull it in and heat it up. Some of the hot gas then falls into the black hole , but not all - some gas gets so hot it shoots out the poles in fast jets . When these jets impact nearby material, they heat it up and cause the detected glow. Galaxy NGC 4438 resides about 50 million light years from Earth , and the pictured central bubble measures about 800 light-years across.
Media Credits & Attribution
Credit: Jeffrey Kenney ( Yale ) et al., WFPC2 , HST NASA