ERIS sees first light, capturing a detailed view of the inner ring of NGC 1097

ERIS, the Very Large Telescope’s newest infrared eye on the sky, captured this stunning image of the inner ring of the galaxy NGC 1097. This galaxy is located 45 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Fornax. ERIS has captured the gaseous and dusty ring that lies at the very centre of the galaxy. The bright spots in the ring are stellar nurseries, shown in unprecedented detail. The centre of this galaxy is active, with a supermassive black hole that feeds off its surroundings. 

This image has been taken through four different filters by ERIS’s state-of-the-art infrared imager, the Near Infrared Camera System — or NIX. The filters have been represented here by blue, green, red and magenta, where the last one highlights the compact regions in the ring. To put NIX’s resolution in perspective, this image shows, in detail, a portion of the sky less than 0.03% the size of the full Moon.

Credit:

ESO/ERIS team

Over de afbeelding

Id:ann22015a
Type:Observatie
Publicatiedatum:23 november 2022 12:00
Gerelateerde mededelingen:ann22015
Grootte:2500 x 2400 px

Over het object

Naam:NGC 1097
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN
Afstand:45 miljoen lichtjaren
Constellation:Fornax
Categorie:Galaxies

Afbeeldingstypen

Grote JPEG
1,3 MB

Coordinates

Position (RA):2 46 19.04
Position (Dec):-30° 16' 29.13"
Field of view:0.55 x 0.52 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.4° left of vertical

Kleuren & filters

BandGolflengteTelescoop
Infrarood
J
1.28 μmVery Large Telescope
ERIS
Infrarood
H2
2.068 μmVery Large Telescope
ERIS
Infrarood
Ks
2.18 μmVery Large Telescope
ERIS
Infrarood
Br-g
2.172 μmVery Large Telescope
ERIS