NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a luminous spiral galaxy, classified as MCG 01-24-014, located approximately 275 million light-years from Earth. This Type-2 Seyfert galaxy appears in a face-on orientation and has a nearly circular shape, with two prominent spiral arms winding out from a glowing core.
The spectral lines that Type-2 Seyfert galaxies emit are associated with specific so-called ‘forbidden’ emission. In other words, spectral emission lines that should not exist according to certain rules of quantum physics. Spectra appear the way they do because certain atoms and molecules will absorb and emit light very reliably at very specific wavelengths.
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But quantum physics is complex, and some of the rules used to predict it use assumptions that suit laboratory conditions here on Earth. Under those rules, this emission is ‘forbidden’ — so improbable that it’s disregarded. But in space, in the midst of an incredibly energetic galactic core, those assumptions don’t hold anymore, and the ‘forbidden’ light gets a chance to shine out towards us,” said the ESA.
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