Enigmatic
spiral galaxy NGC 1097 shines in southern skies, about 45 million light-years
away in the chemical constellation Fornax. Its blue spiral arms are mottled
with pinkish star forming regions in this colorful galaxy portrait. They seem
to have wrapped around a small companion galaxy below and left of center, about
40,000 light-years from the spiral's luminous core. That's not NGC 1097's most
peculiar feature, though. The very deep exposure hints of faint, mysterious
jets, most easily seen to extend well beyond the bluish arms toward the lower
right. In fact, four faint jets are ultimately recognized in optical images of
NGC 1097. The jets trace an X centered on the galaxy's nucleus, but probably
don't originate there. Instead, they could be fossil star streams, trails left
over from the capture and disruption of a much smaller galaxy in the large
spiral's ancient past. A Seyfert galaxy, NGC 1097's nucleus also harbors a
supermassive black hole.
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