This image may not be used by or to promote the arms, nuclear power or tobacco industries or any religious organisation, or in any discriminatory way,

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This image may not be used by or to promote the arms, nuclear power or tobacco industries or any religious organisation, or in any discriminatory way, or to imply the endorsement by ESO of any product, service or activity Spiral galaxy NGC 4945. Optical image of the galaxy NGC 4945, a Seyfert 2 spiral galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. Seyfert galaxies have an unusually bright nucleus. The nucleus of this galaxy is a Seyfert type 2, which does not appear unusually bright at visible wavelengths, but is a powerful emitter of infrared radiation. The power source for a Seyfert nucleus is thought to be a large black hole. NGC 4945 hides a supermassive black hole behind the thick, ring-shaped structure of dust visible in this image. Image obtained by the Danish telescope at the ESO (European Southern Observatory) La Silla Observatory, Chile.

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Photo credit: © EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: 1, 2, 4945, active, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, black, centaurus, cosmology, eso, european, galactic, galaxy, hole, la, ngc, nucleus, observatory, planetary, science, seyfert, seyfert-2, silla, single, southern, space, spiral, star, starry, stars, supermassive, telescope, type