Rings of gold are precious for sure, but what can you say about this? Absolutely stunning!
NASA released the black hole ring photo, yesterday on Feb. 9. The image was taken using several space telescopes across different parts of the light spectrum. Two interacting galaxies, known collectively as Arp 147, set the stage for the spectacular view!
Arp 147 is about 430 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus, the Whale.
This image of the two galaxies that form Arp 147 shows a vast cosmic ring of stars (blue) and black holes (pink) as seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. Another galaxy is also visible (vertical at left), as well as a bright star and quasar (pink object at upper left). This image was released on Feb. 9, 2011.
NASA/CXC/MIT/S.Rappaport et al, Optical: NASA/STScI
