This image, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary and Camera 2, shows the core of the galaxy where the suspected black hole dwells. Astronomers mapped the motions of gas in the grip of the black hole's powerful gravitational pull by aligning the STIS's spectroscopic slit across the nucleus in a single exposure.

Credit: Gary Bower, Richard Green (NOAO), the STIS Instrument Definition Team, and NASA/ESA