Facts about NGC 1068

1. 08

   NGC 1068's narrow-line region emits strongly in the [O III] forbidden oxygen line, indicating gas ionization by the central active nucleus rather than star formation alone.

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2. 07

   At infrared wavelengths, NGC 1068 reveals a highly structured disk of warm dust rotating around its nucleus with rotational velocities reaching approximately 300 kilometers per second.

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3. 06

   Radio observations detect a pair of opposing jets extending roughly 150,000 light-years from NGC 1068's core, among the most extended structures in any nearby active galaxy.

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4. 05

   Spectroscopic analysis reveals that NGC 1068's narrow-line region contains hydrogen-alpha emission spanning approximately 7,000 light-years, making it one of the largest such regions known in any galaxy.

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5. 04

   In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope resolved NGC 1068's narrow emission-line region into distinct jets of ionized gas traveling at velocities exceeding 600 kilometers per second.

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6. 03

   Approximately 47 million light-years away, NGC 1068 displays a prominent dust torus surrounding its active nucleus, which blocks visible light from reaching Earth's direct view of the black hole.

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7. 02

   Observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed that NGC 1068 exhibits powerful outflows of hot gas extending approximately 3,500 light-years from its central region.

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8. 01

   The active galactic nucleus in NGC 1068 contains a supermassive black hole with a mass approximately 15 million times that of our Sun.

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