More Images of Abell 644 and SDSS J1021+131
1
X-ray and Optical Images of Galaxy Cluster Abell 644
Abell 644 is in the center of a galaxy cluster that lies about 920 million light years from Earth.
At the center of this galaxy is a growing
supermassive black hole, called an
active galactic nucleus (AGN) by astronomers, which is pulling in large quantities of gas.
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ/D.Haggard et al, Optical: SDSS)
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X-ray and Optical Images of Field Galaxy SDSS J1021+131
This is an isolated, or "field," galaxy named SDSS J1021+1312, which is located about 1.1 billion light years away
A survey of these and hundreds of other galaxies tells scientists how often the biggest black holes in field galaxies like SDSS J1021+131 have been active over the last few billion years. This has important implications for how environment affects black hole growth.
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ/D.Haggard et al, Optical: SDSS)
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SDSS J1021+131 with Scale Bar
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ/D.Haggard et al, Optical: SDSS)
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Abell 644 with Scale Bar
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ/D.Haggard et al, Optical: SDSS)
Return to Abell 644 and SDSS J1021+131 (December 20, 2010)