Spiral galaxies often dazzle with their swirling arms, but UGC 11397, caught in Hubble’s latest snapshot, hides a supermassive secret. Nestled 250 million light-years away in the constellation Lyra, this galaxy hides a crazy secret at its heart—a supermassive black hole 174 million times heftier than our Sun.
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) weaves a dazzling light story here, mixing six different wavelengths to show off UGC 11397 in jaw-dropping detail. Two graceful spiral arms fan out, twinkling with the gentle glow of a zillion stars. Dark, clumpy dust clouds weave through, tossing in texture and depth, like playful shadows skipping across a painter’s canvas.
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At second glance, and you’ll realize that the supermassive black hole smack in UGC 11397 is actually gobbling up gas, dust, and even whole stars, turning them into a fiery cosmic storm. This feeding frenzy sparks a brilliant display, though much of it hides behind dust, out of Hubble’s optical reach. X-ray glimpses, shared in recent posts, cut through the haze, exposing the black hole’s frantic feast.
Every bit of this image feels intentional, from the soft light fades to the sharp dust lane edges. Why? Well,the WFC3’s filters, spanning from ultraviolet to infrared, uncover hidden gems that often slip by unnoticed, like the delicate gas halo wrapping the galaxy or the sparkling foreground stars.
