{"id":439357,"date":"2026-05-08T22:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439357\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T22:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:22:10","slug":"stunning-image-shows-spiral-galaxys-brilliant-heart-shining-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/439357\/","title":{"rendered":"Stunning image shows spiral galaxy\u2019s brilliant heart shining bright"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A spiral galaxy\u2019s brilliant heart outshines everything within sight in a new picture from Nasa\u2019s Webb Space Telescope.<\/p>\n<p>The image depicts the Messier 77 galaxy 45 million light-years away in the Cetus, or whale, constellation.<\/p>\n<p>A light year is about six trillion miles.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"778\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/messier-77-stunning-image-shows-spiral-galaxy-s-brilliant-heart-shining-bright.jpg\" alt=\"Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its combination of relative proximity and spectacular features to study \" data-title=\"Space Telescope-Galaxy\" data-copyright-holder=\"AP\" data-copyright-notice=\"\" data-credit=\"Uncredited\" data-usage-terms=\"This content is intended for editorial use only. For other uses, additional clearances may be required. Handout \u2013 Government Produced\"\/>Messier 77 is appreciated among astronomers for its combination of relative proximity and spectacular features to study (Nasa via AP)\n<\/p>\n<p>The galaxy\u2019s active nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole that is eight million times more massive than the Sun.<\/p>\n<p>Surrounding gas is sucked into a tight orbit around the black hole, becoming so hot that it radiates in the extreme.<\/p>\n<p>Webb\u2019s mid-infrared instrument captured the stunning details.<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s largest and most powerful space telescope has been photographing the cosmos since launching in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spiral galaxy\u2019s brilliant heart outshines everything within sight in a new picture from Nasa\u2019s Webb Space Telescope.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-439357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}