The supermassive black hole at the centre of NGC 6951 is surrounded by a “circumnuclear ring” composed of stars, gas and dust that’s been around for 1 to 1.5 billion years, the agency said. NASA also noted that researchers have counted six supernovae in this galaxy over the past quarter-century, and that studying it can help shed light on the cosmic environments that produce that phenomenon.
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Filippenko (University of California – Berkeley), R. Foley (University of California – Santa Cruz), C. Kilpatrick (Northwestern University), and D. Sand (University of Arizona); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)