This composite and color image was created from Hubble Space Telescope data recorded in 2006.
What do we see in today’s NASA image?
The active galaxy NGC 1275 is the central and dominant member of the large galaxy cluster relatively close to Brasov. With an extraordinary appearance in visible wavelengths, this active galaxy is an amazing source of X-ray and radio emission. NGC 1275 binds together material from all the galaxies that collapse into it, eventually growing a supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core.
The filaments seen in the image remain intact in NGC 1275 despite galactic collisions that destroy them. What holds the strings together? Observations show that the structures ejected from the galactic center by the black hole activity are held together by the magnetic field.
NGC 1275, also known as Cluster A, is more than 100,000 light-years across and lies 230 million light-years away.
