Messier 87 (M87) an elliptical galaxy located 55 million light-years from Earth. This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a faint

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Messier 87 (M87) an elliptical galaxy located 55 million light-years from Earth. This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a faint trace of a jet of material spewing to the right of the galaxy - a key indicator that a supermassive black hole lived at the galaxy's centre. More prominent in the image is the shockwave created by that jet. A bright jet (which appears to extend to the right of the galaxy) is visible in multiple wavelengths of light, from radio waves to X-rays. The jet is produced by a disk of material spinning rapidly around the black hole. When the particles in the jet impact the interstellar medium they create a shockwave that radiates in infrared and radio wavelengths of light, but not visible light.

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Size: 4180px × 4180px
Photo credit: © NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, -ray, artwork, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, black, bright, elliptical, galaxy, gas, hole, hot, illustration, infrared, ir, jet, m87, messier, radio, radiography, shockwave, space, spitzer, supermassive, telescope, xray