Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


A Black Hole in M87?
<< Yesterday 5.04.1997 Tomorrow >>
A Black Hole in M87?
Credit & Copyright: H. Ford (JHU and StScI), R. Harms (ARC), NASA
Explanation: The center of nearby giant galaxy M87 is a dense and violent place. In this 1994 photograph by the Hubble Space Telescope, a disk of hot gas was found to be orbiting at the center of this massive elliptical galaxy. The disk is evident at the lower left of the picture. The rotation speed of gas in this disk indicates the mass of the object the gas is orbiting, while the size of the disk indicates an approximate volume of the central object. These observations yield a central density so high that the only hypothesized object that could live there is a black hole. The picture also shows a highly energetic jet emanating from the central object like a cosmic blowtorch. The jet is composed of fast moving charged particles and has broken into knots as small as 10 light years across.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < April 1997  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su

123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930



Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: black hole
Publications with words: black hole
See also:
All publications on this topic >>