UGC 6093 is a barred

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

located approximately 500 million light years (or about 153

megaparsecs The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (AU), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and ...

) away from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

in the constellation of Leo. This galaxy is known to host an

active galactic nucleus An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that emits a significant amount of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, with characteristics indicating that this luminosity is not produced by the stars. Such e ...

, which is caused by the accretion of matter by a

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions, of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ...

located at its center, thus causing it to emit huge amounts of

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

and making UGC 6093's core shine excessively. This galaxy is also a megamaser, which means that it acts as a giant astronomical

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

generating microwaves rather than visible light. Just like

UGC 12158 UGC 12158 or PGC 69533 is an Sb-type barred spiral galaxy located approximately away from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus. Its tight spiral disk spans approximately , whose scale at heliocentric distance is about 36.9 kiloparsecs per arc ...

and

NGC 6744 __NOTOC__ NGC 6744 (also known as Caldwell 101 or the Pavo Galaxy) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Pavo (Peacock). Its velocity with respect to the cosmic microwave background is 802 ± 3km/s, which corresponds to a Hubb ...

, it is considered a

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

twin in appearance, with a similar central bar and spiral arm structure.

References

Barred spiral galaxies 6093 Leo (constellation) {{Spiral-galaxy-stub

See also

References