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NGC 3783, John Bozeman

NGC 3783

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NGC 3783, John Bozeman

NGC 3783

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Description

NGC 3783 is a barred spiral galaxy located about 135 million light years away in the constellation Centaurus. It is inclined by an angle of 23° to the line of sight from the Earth along a position angle of about 163°.

The morphological classification of SBa indicates a bar structure across the center (B) and tightly-wound spiral arms (a). Although not shown by this classification, observers note the galaxy has a luminous inner ring surrounding the bar structure. The bright compact nucleus is active and categorized as a Seyfert 1 type. This nucleus is a strong source of X-ray emission and undergoes variations in emission across the electromagnetic spectrum.

The source of the activity in this galaxy is a rapidly rotating supermassive black hole, which is located at the core and is surrounded by an accretion disk of dust. The estimated mass of this black hole, from reverberation mapping, is about 2.8 million times the mass of the Sun. Interferometric observations yield an inner radius of 0.52 ± 0.16 ly (0.16 ± 0.05 pc) for the orbiting torus of dust.

Data from the Hubble Space Telescope MAST Portal. Release date: 2023-10-15

Camera: WFC3

RED - F814W
GREEN - F555W
BLUE - F350LP


Processed with FITS Liberator, GraXpert, PixInsight and Photoshop 2023.

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NGC 3783, John Bozeman