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NGC 6099 (Hubble + Chandra)

Two elliptical galaxies at upper right and lower left appear as fuzzy white ovals. At bottom center is a fuzzy purple blob outlined by a white box. White lines angle outward from the corners of the box to a blow-up of the purple blob. At the center is a white dot labeled HLX-1. The main image also has two bright stars with prominent diffraction spikes. The background of space is black, and is speckled with tiny white dots.

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of galaxies: NGC 6099 (lower left) and NGC 6098 (upper right). The purple blob depicts X-ray emission from a compact star cluster. The X-rays are produced by an intermediate-mass black hole tearing apart a star.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    16:16:43
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    +19:23:28
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Hercules
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    453 million light-years
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Image is about 1.5 arcmin across (about 200,000 light-years)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    The Hubble observations include those from program 17177 (I. Chilingarian)

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    WFC3/UVIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    5 September 2023
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F475W, F814W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    NGC 6099
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Hyperluminous X-ray Source near Elliptical Galaxy
  • Release Date
    July 24, 2025
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Spot Rare Type of Black Hole Eating a Star
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Science: NASA, ESA, CXC, Yi-Chi Chang (National Tsing Hua University); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Display), 2278 × 1822
    png (7.54 MB)
  • Full Res (For Print), 2278 × 1822
    tif (8.32 MB)
  • Full Res (JPG), 2278 × 1822
    jpg (1.91 MB)
  • 2000 × 1600
    jpg (1.46 MB)
  • Unannotated - Full Res (For Display), 2278 × 1822
    png (7.8 MB)
  • Unannotated - Full Res (For Print), 2278 × 1822
    tif (8.71 MB)
  • Unannotated - Full Res (JPG), 2278 × 1822
    jpg (2.03 MB)
  • Unannotated, 2000 × 1600
    jpg (1.55 MB)
Two elliptical galaxies at upper right and lower left appear as fuzzy white ovals. At bottom center is a fuzzy purple blob outlined by a white box. White lines angle outward from the corners of the box to a blow-up of the purple blob. At the center is a white dot labeled HLX-1. The main image also has two bright stars with prominent diffraction spikes. The background of space is black, and is speckled with tiny white dots.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images were acquired by the WFC3 Instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to a monochromatic (grayscale) image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Cyan: F475W, Orange: F814W

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

Two elliptical galaxies at upper right and lower left appear as fuzzy white ovals. Two bright stars with prominent diffraction spikes also appear near center of the image. At bottom center is a tiny white dot labeled HLX-1. The background of space is black, and is speckled with tiny white dots.

NGC 6099 (Hubble)

A Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of galaxies: NGC 6099 (lower left) and NGC 6098 (upper right). The white dot labeled HLX-1 is the visible-light component of the location of a compact star cluster where an intermediate-mass black hole is tearing apart a star.

Two elliptical galaxies at upper right and lower left appear as fuzzy white ovals. At bottom center is a fuzzy purple blob. The main image also has two bright stars with prominent diffraction spikes. The background of space is black, and is speckled with tiny white dots. At the top left, on the first line, in a white font, is the label NGC 6099. On the second line, in a white font, is the label HST WFC3/UVIS. On the third line, in a blue font, is the label F475W. On the fourth line, in an orange font, is the label F814W. On the fifth line, in a purple font, is the label Chandra X-ray. At the bottom left corner is a thin, white, horizontal line about one-sixth the length of the image. This is a scale bar. Above the bar in white is the label 33,000 light-years. Below the line is the label 15 arcsec. At the bottom right corner are two intersecting arrows. The arrow pointing up is labeled N, while the one pointing toward the left is labeled E.

NGC 6099 Compass Image

This compass image shows two elliptical galaxies, NGC 6098 at upper right and NGC 6099 at lower left. The fuzzy purple blob at bottom center shows X-ray emission produced by an intermediate-mass black hole tearing apart a star. 

Artistu2019s concept of the disk of a black hole pulling in a white star like taffy. Against a black field speckled with white and gold stars and galaxies, an intermediate mass black hole tears a star into long, white shreds as it begins to feast on the star.

HLX-1 Illustration

This sequence of artistic illustrations, from upper left to bottom right, shows how a black hole in the core of a star cluster captures a bypassing star and gravitationally shreds it until there is an explosion, seen in the outskirts of the host galaxy.

Artistu2019s concept of the disk of a black hole pulling in a white star like taffy. Against a black field speckled with white and gold stars and galaxies, an intermediate mass black hole tears a star into long, white shreds as it begins to feast on the star.

HLX-1 Animation

This video is an illustration of an intermediate-mass black hole capturing and gravitationally shredding a star. It begins by zooming into a pair of galaxies. The galaxy at lower left, NGC 6099, contain a dense star cluster at center. The video then zooms into the heart of the cl...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 17, 2025
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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