Meet the Z 229-15, the celestial body that can be one of three different things at once, depending on your mood. Released as the European Space Agency’s Image of the Week for the week of March 27, Image Z 229-15 shows what makes this strange space object so intriguing and why it has intrigued many astronomers since it was first discovered.

Located about 390 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra, Z 229-15 is one of the few celestial bodies that can be classified as multiple. The ESA says the object could be a quasar or sometimes identified as an active galactic nucleus (AGN). In other cases it is defined as the Seyfert galaxy. Also, ESA says this strange space object is all of these at once due to a coincidence in the definition of these terms.

And it really is a galaxy. When you look at the image, you can easily see the spiral view of spiral galaxies. It also contains AGN when the region at the center of the galaxy is much brighter due to the supermassive black hole active in the core. A black hole itself is not brighter. On the contrary, all the matter trapped inside this strange space object is responsible for the brightness.

So what makes this celestial body the Seyfert galaxy? This is where the quasar in Z 229-15 comes into play. You see, most quasars are so bright that they drown out the light from the stars in their galaxies. Sometimes quasars even emit jets of matter. In this case, however, the stars are clearly visible, making the quasar in this strange cosmic object much dimmer than usual, creating what astronomers call the Seyfert galaxy.

It is interesting to find a space object that has many things for sure. And it’s even more surprising to be able to look at an image taken by Hubble and see it with your own eyes, thanks to the powerful instruments on the old telescope. Source