                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2024 May 9

                The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
   Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

   Explanation: Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is home to the
   supermassive black hole captured in 2017 by planet Earth's Event
   Horizon Telescope in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the
   Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away, M87 is rendered
   in blue hues in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope.
   Though M87 appears mostly featureless and cloud-like, the Spitzer image
   does record details of relativistic jets blasting from the galaxy's
   central region. Shown in the inset at top right, the jets themselves
   span thousands of light-years. The brighter jet seen on the right is
   approaching and close to our line of sight. Opposite, the shock created
   by the otherwise unseen receding jet lights up a fainter arc of
   material. Inset at bottom right, the historic black hole image is shown
   in context at the center of giant galaxy, between the relativistic
   jets. Completely unresolved in the Spitzer image, the supermassive
   black hole surrounded by infalling material is the source of enormous
   energy driving the relativistic jets from the center of active galaxy
   M87. The Event Horizon Telescope image of M87 has been enhanced to
   reveal a sharper view of the famous supermassive black hole.

                 It's inescapable: Black Hole Week at NASA!
                   Tomorrow's picture: pixels in spacetime
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

