The Hubble Telescope captured a vivid image of the center of M77.

A vivid image of M77’s center has been taken using visible and infrared observations by the Hubble Telescope. The red and blue stripes in this image highlight pockets of star formation along the pinwheeling arms. There are dark dust lanes around the stars in the galaxy. M77 is a spiral galaxy, it is a prime example of a Seyfert galaxy, M77 has a sharply active center, it cannot be seen, because it is obscured by gas and dust in visible light.

The M77 galaxy is located approximately 47 million light-years from Earth, is a spiral galaxy visible in the region of the constellation Cetus, the M77 galaxy was identified as a nebula in 1780 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchen, and it One of the largest galaxies in the catalogue. M77 is most easily seen in the months of December, as M77 has an apparent magnitude of 9.6, and it is possible to see it using a small telescope.

Messier 77 is also an active galaxy with a galactic nucleus (AGN), obscured by astronomical dust at visible wavelengths, the researchers measured the diameters of molecular disks and hot plasma associated with obscure material previously measured by VLBAs and VLAs, And then the hot dust around the nucleus was measured in the mid-infrared by the MIDI instrument at VLTI. Messier 77 is the brightest, and closest, perfect galaxy to study, it is one of the Type 2 Seyfert galaxies.