Astronomy Now - January 2021

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Galactic light rays

t the heart of IC 5063 is an active supermassive black hole that is busy guzzling gas. As the gas
nears the black hole, it heats up and forms an accretion disc that is radiating brilliant light. IC
5063 is in a category of active galaxy known as Seyfert Type II, in which the active core of the
galaxy is partially obscured by a thick torus, or ring, of dust.

Emanating from the centre of the galaxy, and clearly seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image, are
rays of light stretching up to 36, 000 light years from IC 5063’s centre. Like crepuscular rays shining
through gaps in clouds on the horizon at sunset, it is thought that these cosmic rays of light are
being produced by the luminosity of the active centre piercing through gaps in the dusty torus.
Image: NASA/ESA/W. P. Maksym (CfA).

Bands of light and dark shine out from the shrouded core of the active galaxy IC 5063, which

is a lenticular (disc) galaxy located 156 million light years away in the Southern Hemisphere

constellation of Indus.

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Galactic light rays

January 2021

Astronomy Now