This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 1672, a spiral galaxy located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado.
This galaxy is a talented light show, displaying an impressive variety of different celestial bodies. As in any spiral galaxy, its disk is filled with shining stars, giving the galaxy a beautiful glow.
Along its two large arms, hydrogen gas bubbles shine with a striking red light, powered by radiation from the young stars inside. Near the center of the galaxy, there are some particularly striking stars immersed in a ring of hot gas.
Newly formed and extremely hot stars emit powerful X-rays. Closer, in the very center of the galaxy, is an even brighter source of X-rays – the active galactic nucleus.
This X-ray powerhouse makes NGC 1672 a Seyfert galaxy. It is formed as a result of the swirling of hot matter in the accretion disk around the supermassive black hole NGC 1672.
