October 24, 2022

James Webb Telescope has targeted an active spiral galaxy NGC 7172 for observation on October 22, 2022. Nearly 110.5 million light-years away, in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, is where you may find NGC 7172. The English astronomer John Herschel made the discovery of the galaxy on September 23, 1834. It has a diameter of 85,000 light-years and is also known as ESO 466-38, IRAS 21591-3206, or LEDA 67874. The spiral galaxy NGC 7174, two elliptical galaxies NGC 7173 and NGC 7176, and NGC 7172 are all members of the Hickson Compact Group 90.

Tendrils of dark dust can be seen weaving across the spiral galaxy NGC 7172's center in this view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy is located roughly 110 million light-years away from Earth in the Piscis Austrinus constellation. NGC 7172 appears to be no more than an ordinary spiral galaxy when viewed from the side due to the lane of dust that is weaving its way across the galaxy. 

The Seyfert galaxy NGC 7172 is a type of galaxy with an incredibly brilliant active galactic nucleus powered by matter accreting onto a supermassive black hole. Astronomers soon realized this when they examined NGC 7172 across the electromagnetic spectrum.

James Webb Telescope's observations of NGC 7172 will provide us more data about this spiral galaxy and expand our understanding of its supermassive black hole.