JPL Logo
Image

Galaxy NGC 1448 with Active Galactic Nucleus

Jan. 7, 2017
NGC 1448, a galaxy with an active galactic nucleus hidden by gas and dust, is seen in this image combining data from the Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey in the optical range and NASA's NuSTAR in the X-ray range.

NGC 1448, a galaxy with an active galactic nucleus, is seen in this image combining data from the Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey in the optical range and NuSTAR in the X-ray range.

This galaxy contains an example of a supermassive black hole hidden by gas and dust. X-ray emissions from NGC 1448, as seen by NuSTAR and Chandra, suggests for the first time that, like IC 3639 in PIA21087, there must be a thick layer of gas and dust hiding the active black hole in this galaxy from our line of sight.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NuSTAR was developed in partnership with the Danish Technical University and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Virginia. NuSTAR's mission operations center is at UC Berkeley, and the official data archive is at NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center. ASI provides the mission's ground station and a mirror archive. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar and http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/.

Keep Exploring