{"id":374360,"date":"2026-04-04T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/374360\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:00:20","slug":"hubble-space-telescope-focuses-on-ic-486","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/374360\/","title":{"rendered":"Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on IC 486"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Hubble team has released a beautiful close-up shot of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14670e-IC-486.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-109154\" class=\"wp-image-109154 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_14670-IC-486.jpg\" alt=\"This Hubble image shows IC 486, a barred spiral galaxy some 380 million light-years away in the constellation of Gemini. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA \/ Hubble \/ M.J. Koss \/ A.J. Barth.\" width=\"580\" height=\"378\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-109154\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This Hubble image shows IC 486, a barred spiral galaxy some 380 million light-years away in the constellation of Gemini. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA \/ Hubble \/ M.J. Koss \/ A.J. Barth.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/simbad.cds.unistra.fr\/simbad\/sim-id?Ident=IC+486\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">IC 486<\/a> is located some 380 million light-years away in the constellation of Gemini.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise known as LEDA 22445, IRAS 07572+2645 or UGC 4155, this galaxy was <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/IC_486\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">discovered<\/a> on March 6, 1891 by the Austrian astronomer and climatologist Rudolf Ferdinand Spitaler.<\/p>\n<p>IC 486 features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHubble\u2019s keen eye reveals subtle variations in color across IC 486,\u201d the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pale, luminous center is dominated by older stars, while faint bluish regions in the surrounding disk trace pockets of more recent star formation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWisps of dust thread through the galaxy\u2019s structure, gently obscuring light and tracing regions of increased molecular gas where new stars are likely to form.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the galaxy\u2019s center a noticeable white glow outshines the starlight around it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is light given off by IC 486\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1086\/316378\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">active galactic nucleus<\/a> (AGN), powered by a supermassive black hole more than 100 million times the mass of the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery sufficiently large galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its center, but some of these black holes are particularly ravenous, marshalling vast amounts of gas and dust into swirling accretion disks from which they feed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intense heat generated by the orbiting disk; of material generates intense radiation up to and including X-rays, which can outshine the entire rest of the galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these cases, the galaxy is known as an active galaxy, with an AGN at its center.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough it may appear calm and orderly, IC 486 is a dynamic system shaped by gravity and stellar evolution,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver millions of years, its structure will continue to evolve as stars are born, age, and fade, contributing to the ongoing story of galactic life in the Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hubble team has released a beautiful close-up shot of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486. This Hubble&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[73942,35811,1560,6797,1745,26627,179647,85,46,3442,141,145,26630,4952,13854],"class_list":{"0":"post-374360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-active-galactic-nucleus","9":"tag-barred-spiral-galaxy","10":"tag-black-hole","11":"tag-esa","12":"tag-galaxy","13":"tag-hubble","14":"tag-ic-486","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-nasa","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-space","20":"tag-spiral-galaxy","21":"tag-star","22":"tag-supermassive-black-hole"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}