Chandra Release - January 5, 2016

Visual Description: NGC 5195

The full field image features a small galaxy named NGC 5195, a companion just above the larger Whirlpool galaxy. The Whirlpool galaxy and NGC 5195 are both shown in visible light while NGC 5195 is seen in a pullout of X-ray light.  In the visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope (colored in red, green, and blue), the overall galaxy appears as a spiral with pale blue, pink, yellow and white-grey colors. Meanwhile in the X-ray image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the companion appears as a blue-purple malformed, slightly spiral shape.  The X-ray image reveals that NGC 5195 has a supermassive black hole at its center. There are a pair of arcs in X-ray emission close to the center of the galaxy, which researchers interpret as two outbursts from the galaxy's supermassive black hole.