A supermassive black hole dwells at the center of this galaxy image
Located In The Cephus Constellation, This Intermediate Spiral Galaxy — Dubbed NGC 6951 — Has Had A Long And Storied Past. It Reached Peak Star Formation Around 800 Million Years Ago But Went Quiet For 300 Million Years Before It Once Again Started Generating New Stars, According To NASA. The Galaxy Is 78 Million Light-Years Away From Earth And Can Be Spotted From The Northern Hemisphere.

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)

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