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.

                                2021 April 15

                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 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 the large
   galaxy 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 and 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.

                  Tomorrow's picture: pixels on the horizon
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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