whats going on here ?

• by nancypants

  is this a very old galaxy ? it looks very hot at the center is that correct
  the of the images are fantastic i feel privileged to be able to see them

  Posted June 25, 2014 3:19 PM

• by ElisabethB moderator

  This is Mrk 309 and it has an AGN ( Active Galaxy Nucleus), that is why the center looks so weird. The blue spot in the center is an optical artifact caused by oversaturation.

  More info on AGN here : AGN

  And, yes, we are very priviledged to look at these images 😄

  Happy hunting ! 😄

  Posted June 25, 2014 3:40 PM

• by JeanTate in response to nancypants's comment.

  Welcome to Galaxy Zoo, nancypants!

  This galaxy has, as one of its names, Markaryan 309, or MRK 309. The star-like nucleus is an AGN, an active galactic nucleus, and a very bright one too; this means it is a Seyfert (see Wikipedia). It is very well studied, with nearly 100 scientific papers on it (and similar objects).

  Happy hunting! 😃

  Posted June 25, 2014 3:42 PM

• by nancypants

  thanks for the reply's im enjoying every spare moment i can hunting and using my telescope whenever the uk skys are clear enough 😃

  Posted June 25, 2014 4:07 PM