Galaxy NGC 3627 in Leo | NASA Chandra, Hubble & Webb Space Telescopes

Galaxy NGC 3627 in Leo | NASA Chandra, Hubble & Webb Space Telescopes

This is a composite image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the James Webb Space Telescope. Pictured is galaxy NGC 3627, located 36 million light-years away.

Like the Milky Way, NGC 3627 is a spiral galaxy that we see at a slight angle. NGC 3627 is known as a “barred” spiral galaxy because of the rectangular shape of its central region. From our vantage point, we can also see two distinct spiral arms that appear as arcs. X-rays from Chandra in purple show evidence for a supermassive black hole in its center as well as other dense objects like neutron stars and black holes pulling in matter. Meanwhile Webb finds the dust, gas, and stars throughout the galaxy in red, green, and blue. This image also contains optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in red, green, and blue.

Image Description: A hazy image of a spiral galaxy known as NGC 3627. Here, the galaxy appears pitched at an oblique angle, tilted from our upper left down to our lower right. Much of its face is angled toward us, making its spiral arms, composed of red and purple dots, easily identifiable. Several bright white dots ringed with neon purple speckle the galaxy. At the galaxy’s core, where the spiral arms converge, a large white and purple glow identified by Chandra provides evidence of a supermassive black hole.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESO/STScI, ESO/WFI; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JWST

Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major

Release Date: July 11, 2024

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