M87, NGC 4486, Elliptical Galaxy, X-Ray
Eruption of a galactic "super-volcano" in the massive galaxy M87. At a distance of about 50 million light years, M87 is relatively close to Earth and lies at the center of the Virgo cluster, which contains thousands of galaxies. The interaction of this cosmic "eruption" with the galaxy's environment is very similar to that of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland that occurred in 2010. With Eyjafjallajokull, pockets of hot gas blasted through the surface of the lava, generating shock waves that can be seen passing through the grey smoke of the volcano. This hot gas then rises up in the atmosphere, dragging the dark ash with it. In the analogy with Eyjafjallajokull, the energetic particles produced in the vicinity of the black hole rise through the X-ray emitting atmosphere of the cluster, lifting up the coolest gas near the center of M87 in their wake. This is similar to the hot volcanic gases that drag up the clouds of dark ash. And just like the volcano here on Earth, shock waves can be seen when the black hole pumps energetic particles into the cluster gas. Messier 87 (also known as M87, Virgo A or NGC 4486) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. Messier 87 has no distinctive dust lanes and it has an almost featureless, ellipsoidal shape that diminishes in luminosity with distance from the center. At the core is a supermassive black hole, which forms the primary component of an active galactic nucleus. This object is a strong source of multi-wavelength radiation, particularly radio waves. A jet of energetic plasma originates at the core and extends outward at least 1,500 parsecs (5,000 light-years). Release date August 18, 2010.
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Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: -ray, 21st, 87, 2010, 4486, active, agn, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, black, body, celestial, century, chandra, cosmic, cosmography, cosmological, cosmology, cosmos, cxc, deep, detection, elliptical, emission, eruption, evolution, galactic, galaxies, galaxy, heavenly, hole, image, m87, messier, ngc, nucleus, object, observation, observatory, science, sky, space, super-volcano, supergiant, supermassive, universe, virgo
