The Circinus Galaxy

Explanation: Powerful forces are at play in the nearby Circinus Galaxy. Hot gas, colored pink, is being ejected out of the spiral galaxy from the central region. Much of Circinus ' tumultuous gas, however, is concentrated in two rings. The outer ring, located about 700 light-years from the center, appears mostly red and is home to tremendous bursts of star formation . A previously unseen inner ring , inside the green disk above, is visible only 130 light years from the center on this recently released, representative color image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope . At the very center is an active galactic nucleus , where matter glows brightly before likely spiraling into a massive black hole . Although only 15 million light years distant, the Circinus Galaxy went unnoticed until 25 years ago because it is so obscured by material in the plane of our own Galaxy . The galaxy can be seen with a small telescope, however, in the constellation of Circinus .