Zooming into the Black Hole Jet in Elliptical Galaxy M87 | Hubble

Zooming into the Black Hole Jet in Elliptical Galaxy M87 | Hubble

This video begins with a view of the stars and galaxies in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). We zoom into the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, which lies near the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. A high-speed jet of hot plasma is buried deep inside the galaxy. A supermassive black hole ejects the jet at nearly the speed of light.

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope time-lapse video captures the movement of the jet over a timespan of 13 years.

Distance: 54 million light years

Credits:

NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and G. Bacon/Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)  

Constellation Region of Galaxy M87 Credit: A. Fujii  

Galaxy M87 Credit: R. Gendler  

Hubble View of M87 Jet Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Meyer, W. Sparks, J. Biretta, J. Anderson, S.T. Sohn, and R. van der Marel (STScI), C. Norman (Johns Hopkins University), and M. Nakamura (Academia Sinica), and G. Bacon (STScI)

Duration: 46 seconds

Release Date: February 17, 2016

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