Hubble Space Telescope Observes Sunset Like View In Galaxy IC 5063

Astronomers have claimed to capture large shadows formed around a massive black hole. They said that the effect was created after light got leaked by the dust disk. The latest discovery was made using the data transmitted by the Hubble Space Telescope. The astronomical observatory was launched by the US space agency NASA in 1990. The telescope has made some unexpected discoveries in the last three decades. The shadows stretch in each direction for at least 36,000 light-years. It was spotted nearby an active galaxy IC 5063. It is almost 156 million light-years away from Earth. Astronomers said that the latest discovery is evidence that there is dust all over the galaxy.

Researchers said that the supermassive black hole was blocked with the dense patches of dust and the light couldn’t make the way. However, the light got leaked and was captured by the NASA telescope. Astronomers said that the galaxy got merged with another galaxy recently. This predicted that its merger could have caused dust everywhere and the light was blocked by the dust ring. There is another possibility that the black hole jets kicked up dust. The photo used by the astronomers to make the discovery was captured by the telescope on November 25 last year. Harvard astronomer Peter Maksym said that this is something that the community has never seen before.

Astronomers added that the shadows are evidence that IC 5063’s disk could be very thin. This possibility cannot be ruled out completely and could be a factor behind the leakage of the light. The marvelous image showed a mixture of bright rays and dark shadows. The shadows are of the dust around the black hole. The disks are located far and it is impossible to find out more detail for the scientists. The views appear to be similar to sunset on Earth. Although scientists are studying the galaxy for a long, it took a team of astronomers to make the stunning discovery.