Jet Emerging from Galaxy M87

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A jet of electrons and other sub-atomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light streams out from the center of the supergiant elliptical galaxy M87. In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, the blue jet contrasts with the yellow glow from the combined light of billions of unseen stars and the yellow, point-like clusters of stars that make up this galaxy. Lying at the center of M87 is a black hole that has swallowed up matter equal to 2 billion times our Sun's mass. M87 is 50 million light-years from Earth.

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Size: 2587px × 2700px
Location:
Photo credit: © Science History Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 12282+1240, 87, 4486, astronomic, astronomical, astronomy, black, cluster, elliptical, exploration, galactic, galaxies, galaxy, hole, hubble, iras, jet, light, m87, messier, ngc, outer, space, speed, virgo