Tags: Galaxy.
NGC 5548 is a well-studied Type I Seyfert galaxy with a bright active nucleus. This activity is caused by matter flowing onto a 65 million solar mass supermassive black hole at the core. Morphologically this is an unbarred lenticular galaxy with tightly-wound spiral arms while shell and tidal tail features suggest that it has undergone a cosmologically-recent merger or interaction event. NGC 5548 is approximately 245 million light years away and appears in the constellation Boötes.