Brightness

• by bluemagi

  What causes some of the galaxies to have a really bright center? and others not ?

  Posted December 22, 2015 5:44 AM

• by JeanTate

  Great question!

  Sometimes it's just a matter of contrast: the background and scaling are set so as to highlight faint (low surface brightness) features, so the center (nucleus, or bulge) can look really bright but it isn't really.

  Other times there's an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the center of the bulge; these appear star-like, and can be extremely bright

  For this galaxy, I'd say it's more of a contrast thing than the presence of an AGN.

  Hope this helps, and happy hunting! 😃

  Posted December 22, 2015 3:33 PM