Interacting galaxies 3C 321. Ultraviolet (UV) image of warm and hot gas (red) in the two galaxies in the 3C 321 system. These UV observations show that both galaxies have,or have had,active supermassive black holes. This system includes a powerful radio jet (not seen) emerging from the larger galaxy (lower left) and hitting the nearby companion galaxy. This jet of high-energy particles,is being generated by a supermassive black hole at the centre of the larger galaxy. This image was obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). 3C 321 is 1.25 billion light years from Earth,in the constellation Serpens Caput. For a series of images of 3C 321,from a study carried out in 2007,including visible,radio,ultraviolet and X-ray observations,see images R826/124 to R826/130 |