The small core of elliptical galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] appears to be energizing its whole galactic neighborhood. Recent images [ http://www.nrao.edu…] from the Very Large Array [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] (VLA) of radio telescopes [ http://www.nro.nao.…] indicate that huge bubbles of hot gas not only exist but are still being created. These bubbles measure 200,000 light-years across and surround the entire galaxy [ http://www.nrao.edu…]. The source creating and feeding the bubbles has been traced to jets [ http://www.jb.man.a…] pointing back to M87's center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], where a supermassive black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is thought to live. The smallest scale on the above radio-map [ http://www.nrao.edu…] is 0.2 light-years and imaged by many radio telescopes working together (VLBI [ http://www.jb.man.a…]). The labeled numbers refer to the wavelength of the radio waves observed. The exact composition of these jets is not known [ http://adsabs.harva…], but thought to contain various subatomic particles [ http://pdg.lbl.gov/…].
Explanation
The small core of elliptical galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] appears to be energizing its whole galactic neighborhood. Recent images [ http://www.nrao.edu…] from the Very Large Array [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] (VLA) of radio telescopes [ http://www.nro.nao.…] indicate that huge bubbles of hot gas not only exist but are still being created. These bubbles measure 200,000 light-years across and surround the entire galaxy [ http://www.nrao.edu…]. The source creating and feeding the bubbles has been traced to jets [ http://www.jb.man.a…] pointing back to M87's center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], where a supermassive black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is thought to live. The smallest scale on the above radio-map [ http://www.nrao.edu…] is 0.2 light-years and imaged by many radio telescopes working together (VLBI [ http://www.jb.man.a…]). The labeled numbers refer to the wavelength of the radio waves observed. The exact composition of these jets is not known [ http://adsabs.harva…], but thought to contain various subatomic particles [ http://pdg.lbl.gov/…].
