NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures extraordinarily bright interacting galaxies

The image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope released by NASA on May 3, 2023 shows interacting galaxies known as AM 1214-255. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the new image of extraordinarily bright interacting galaxies known as AM 1214-255, the agency said Wednesday. (NASA/ESA/A. Barth/University of California-Irvine/J. Dalcanton/University of Washington/Processing: Gladys Kober/NASA/Catholic University of America/Handout via Xinhua)

LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Xinhua) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of extraordinarily bright interacting galaxies known as AM 1214-255, the agency said Wednesday.

These galaxies contain active galactic nuclei (AGN), an extraordinarily luminous central region of a galaxy. Its extreme brightness is caused by matter whirling into a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's heart, according to NASA.

Hubble observed the galaxy closest to the center as part of an AGN survey, with the aim of compiling a dataset about nearby AGNs to be used as a resource for astronomers investigating AGN physics, black holes, host galaxy structure, and more, said NASA.