NGC 4438 and 4435 (ARP 120) often termed “The Eyes” are part of the Virgo Cluster and are situated approximately 50 million light years from here.
NGC 4438 is classed as a peculiar Galaxy due to its unusual shape, likely from interaction with NGC 4435.
NGC 4438 contains a supermassive black hole which is blowing massive bubbles of hot gas into space. This material is spewed away from the black hole as it consumes material that has gathered around an accretion disk. The gas bubbles expand until they hit a wall of dense slow moving gas. The impact produces the glowing material within the bubbles. The bubbles will eventually disappear.
Imaged in LRGB on my Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image acquisition and processing: Mike Selby
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