Cosmology Views

Electrically Active Cartwheel Galaxy

This image is from 2006 but I discovered this story today.

from the story:

Most galaxies have only one or two bright X-ray sources, usually associated with gas falling onto a black hole from a companion star. The Cartwheel has a dozen. Appleton said that makes sense, because black holes thrive in areas where massive stars are forming and dying fast.

The Cartwheel galaxy is one of the brightest ultraviolet energy sources in the local universe. In some visible-light images, it appears to have spokes.

Cartwheel is a monstrous 2.5 times the size of the Milky Way.

(excerpt end)

The reasons why it must be electrically active are its unique features beyond its ring:

a) it has a dozen X-ray sources.
As they are probably scattered outside the central core  I could assume they are individual plasmoids. They are not black holes.


b) there are visible spokes to the outer ring.
I could assume they are luminous plasma filaments.

This large ring with such visible details is definitely NOT from a gravitational lens.

Clicking on the image in the story zooms in for a better view.

link


After posting, I added this comment:
Here are more images including the Chandra image with those individual X-ray sources, several near the core, others in the ring.

link