ExploraTour: A Peek into the Lives of the Stars
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Image from the Hubble Space Telescope, reproduced with permission from AURA/STScI.
Possible Black Hole at the Core of NGC 4261.
This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a possible giant black hole at the center of the elliptical galaxy NGC 4261.
The black hole cannot be viewed directly since it emits no light. However, a giant disk of gas and dust being drawn into the black hole is heated near the black hole and is made visible through the light that it emits. The disk is thought to be about 300 light years across.
