NGC 1097

NGC 1097A is a Seyfert galaxy, with jets shooting out from the center. Deep-space photographs revealed four narrow optical jets that appear to emanate from the nucleus. These have been interpreted as manifestations of the (currently faint) active nucleus. Subsequent analysis of the radio-to-X-ray spectral energy distribution of the brightest jet ruled out synchrotron emission. In fact, the optical jets are composed of stars. The failure to detect atomic hydrogen gas in the jets (under the assumption that they were an example of tidal tails) using deep 21-cm HI images with the Very Large Array radio telescope led to the current interpretation that the jets are actually the fragmented remnants of a cannibalized dwarf galaxy. Parts of these jets can be faintly seen in the photograph.

Like most galaxies, NGC 1097 has a supermassive black hole at its center. NGC 1097 has two satellite galaxies: NGC 1097A and NGC 1097B. The dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 1097A is the larger of the two, and can be seen at the top of the galaxy.

Credit: Wikipedia