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M87: Chandra Reviews Black H
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| Name |
M87: Chandra Reviews Black Hole Musical: Epic But Off-Key |
| Category |
Quasars & Active Galaxies, Groups & Clusters of Galaxies |
| Release Date |
October 05, 2006 |
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Chandra Low Energy X-ray Ima
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| Name |
Chandra Low Energy X-ray Images of M87 |
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X-ray/Optical Composite of M
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| Name |
X-ray/Optical Composite of M87 |
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Chandra X-ray Image of M87,
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image of M87, Labeled |
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Chandra X-ray Image of M87,
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image of M87, Close-Up |
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Chandra X-ray Image of M87,
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| Name |
Chandra X-ray Image of M87, Minus Radial Gradient |
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X-ray/Radio Composite of M87
| Name |
X-ray/Radio Composite of M87 |
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VLA Radio Image of M87
| Name |
VLA Radio Image of M87 |
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DSS Optical Image of M87
| Name |
DSS Optical Image of M87 |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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More Images of M87 (Jet)
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More Images of M87 (Jet) |
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M87 Jet: Chandra Sheds Light
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| Name |
M87 Jet: Chandra Sheds Light on the Knotty Problem of the M87 Jet |
| Category |
Quasars & Active Galaxies |
| Release Date |
September 26, 2001 |
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Hubble Confirms Existence of
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| Title |
Hubble Confirms Existence of Massive Black Hole at Heart of Active Galaxy |
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Hubble Confirms Existence of
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| Title |
Hubble Confirms Existence of Massive Black Hole at Heart of Active Galaxy |
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HST's Greatest Hits 1990-199
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| Title |
HST's Greatest Hits 1990-1995 |
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Hubble Finds Intergalactic S
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| Title |
Hubble Finds Intergalactic Stars |
| General Information |
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. The Hubble telescope has found a long-sought population of "stellar outcasts" ? stars tossed out of their home galaxies into the dark emptiness of intergalactic space. This is the first time stars have been found more than 300,000 light-years (three Milky Way diameters) from the nearest big galaxy. The isolated stars dwell in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, about 60 million light-years from Earth. The results suggest this population of "lone stars" accounts for 10 percent of the Virgo cluster's mass, or 1 trillion Sun-like stars adrift among the 2,500 galaxies in Virgo. This is an illustration of the view of the nighttime sky from the surface of a hypothetical planet orbiting an "outcast" star in the Virgo cluster. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/02/text/ ] |
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Very Long Baseline Array Rev
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| Title |
Very Long Baseline Array Reveals Formation Region of Giant Cosmic Jet Near a Black Hole |
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Very Long Baseline Array Rev
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| Title |
Very Long Baseline Array Reveals Formation Region of Giant Cosmic Jet Near a Black Hole |
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Very Long Baseline Array Rev
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| Title |
Very Long Baseline Array Reveals Formation Region of Giant Cosmic Jet Near a Black Hole |
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Very Long Baseline Array Rev
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| Title |
Very Long Baseline Array Reveals Formation Region of Giant Cosmic Jet Near a Black Hole |
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Very Long Baseline Array Rev
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| Title |
Very Long Baseline Array Reveals Formation Region of Giant Cosmic Jet Near a Black Hole |
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A Cosmic Searchlight
| Title |
A Cosmic Searchlight |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
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$10 Million NSF Grant to Fun
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| Title |
$10 Million NSF Grant to Fund "National Virtual Observatory |
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescop
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| Title |
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Yields Clear View of Optical Jet in Galaxy M87 |
| General Information |
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. A NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) view of a 4,000 light-year long jet of plasma emanating from the bright nucleus of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. This ultraviolet light image was made with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC), one of two imaging systems aboard HST. |
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescop
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| Title |
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Discovers Young Star Clusters in Giant Galaxy |
| General Information |
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided intriguing new clues to cataclysmic events in the history of the peculiar galaxy NGC 1275, located approximately 200 million light-years from Earth. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1992/02/text/ ] |
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Hubble Fellowship Program Se
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| Title |
Hubble Fellowship Program Selects Talented Young Astronomers for Studying Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries |
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescop
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| Title |
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Probes the Compact Nucleus of Galaxy M87 |
| General Information |
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release? A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference. Astronomers report today that they have found intriguing evidence that a black hole weighing over 2.6 billion times the mass of the Sun exists at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy M87, based upon images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The images show that stars become strongly concentrated towards the center of M87, as if drawn into the center and held there by the gravitational field of a massive black hole. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1992/01/text/ ] |
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One of Hottest Known Stars C
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| Title |
One of Hottest Known Stars Captured in Hubble Photograph |
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HST Images Compact Young Rad
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| Title |
HST Images Compact Young Radio Galaxy |
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The Virgo Cluster of Galaxie
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| Title |
The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies |
| Explanation |
Pictured are several galaxies of the Virgo Cluster, the closest cluster of galaxies [ http://www.astr.ua.edu/white/mug/cluster/clusters.html ] to our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990224.html ]. The Virgo Cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo.html ] spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about 10 times the angle made by a full Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991108.html ]. It contains over 100 galaxies of many types - including spirals [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/spiral_galaxies.html ], ellipticals [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/elliptical_galaxies.html ], and irregular [ http://www.seds.org/messier/irre.html ] galaxies. The Virgo Cluster [ http://www.astr.ua.edu/white/mug/cluster/virgo.html ] is so massive that it is noticeably pulling our Galaxy toward it. The cluster contains not only galaxies filled with stars but also gas so hot [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960419.html ] it glows in X-rays [ http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/05250_A.html ]. Motions of galaxies in and around clusters indicate that they contain more dark matter [ http://cfpa.berkeley.edu/darkmat/dm.html ] than any visible matter we can see. Notable bright galaxies in the Virgo Cluster include bright Messier objects [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/messier.html ] such as M61 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980922.html ], M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950913.html ], M90 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960316.html ], and M100 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980606.html ]. |
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Elliptical Galaxy M87
| Title |
Elliptical Galaxy M87 |
| Explanation |
In spiral galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060506.html ], majestic winding arms of young stars and interstellar gas and dust rotate in a flat disk around a bulging galactic nucleus. But elliptical galaxies [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/galaxies/ elliptical.html ] seem to be simpler. Lacking gas and dust to form new stars, their randomly swarming older stars, give them an ellipsoidal (egg-like) shape. Still, elliptical galaxies can be very large. Over 120,000 light-years in diameter (larger than our own Milky Way), elliptical galaxy M87 [ http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/ M87NM.html ] is the dominant galaxy at the center of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/ virgo.html ], some 50 million light-years away. M87 is likely home to a supermassive black hole responsible [ http://blackholes.stardate.org/directory/ factsheet.php?id=7 ] for the high-energy jet of particles emerging from the giant galaxy's central region. |
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A Jet from Galaxy M87
| Title |
A Jet from Galaxy M87 |
| Explanation |
What's causing a huge jet to emanate from the center of galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950913.html ]? Although the unusual jet [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/2000july6/ngc4486table.html ] was first noticed early in the twentieth century [ http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20centry.htm ], the exact cause is still debated. The above recently released picture [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/2000july6/displayngc4486.html ] taken by the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://www.stsci.edu/hst/ ] shows clear details, however. The most popular hypothesis [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1999Natur.401..891J ] holds that the jet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000619.html ] is created by energetic gas swirling around a massive black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970405.html ] at the galaxy's center. The result is a 5000 light-year [ http://www.pa.msu.edu/sci_theatre/ask_st/012292.html ] long blowtorch where electrons [ http://www.aip.org/history/electron/ ] are ejected outward at near light-speed, emitting eerily blue light [ http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/courses/astro201/synch_rad.htm ] during a magnetic spiral. M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990216.html ] is a giant elliptical galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/elliptical_galaxies.html ] residing only 50 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000220.html ]. The faint dots of light surrounding M87 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m087.html ]'s center are large ancient globular clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/globular_clusters.html ] of stars. |
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Galaxies Of The Virgo Cluste
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| Title |
Galaxies Of The Virgo Cluster |
| Explanation |
Well over a thousand galaxies are known members of the Virgo Cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo.html ], the closest large cluster of galaxies to our own local group [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991114.html ]. The galaxy cluster is difficult to see [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo_gal.html ] all at once because it covers such a large area on the sky [ http://people.ne.mediaone.net/mbendaniel/gallery/astro/ index.html ]. Still, this excellent telescopic view [ http://people.ne.mediaone.net/mbendaniel/gallery/astro/ virgo_cluster.html ] records the region of the Virgo Cluster around its dominant giant elliptical galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990216.html ]. M87 can be seen as a fuzzy patch near the picture's bottom center. In fact, a close examination of the image will reveal that many of the "stars" are actually surrounded by a telltale fuzz, indicating that they are Virgo Cluster galaxies [ http://www.limber.org/cruise.html ]. How many galaxies can you pick out? Click on the image for an uncropped, labeled version which includes the NGC catalog [ http://www.ngcic.org/ ] numbers for most of the visible galaxies. On average, Virgo Cluster [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/virgo/ index.html ] galaxies are measured to be about 48 million light-years away. The Virgo Cluster distance [ http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/ nph-iarticle_query?1996PASP%2E%2E108%2E1091V ] has been used to give an important determination of the Hubble Constant and the scale of the Universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/ debate96.html ]. |
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M87's Energetic Jet
| Title |
M87's Energetic Jet |
| Explanation |
An energetic jet [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0134/index.html ] from the core of giant elliptical galaxy M87 stretches outward for 5,000 light-years. This monstrous [ http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/ stardate.html ] jet appears [ http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/jetplane.html ] in the panels above to be a knotted and irregular structure, dectected across the spectrum [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/ waves3.html ], from x-ray to optical [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000706.html ] to radio [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990216.html ] wavelengths. In all these bands [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0134/ 0134_3band.jpg ], the observed emission is likely created as high energy electrons spiral along magnetic field lines, so called synchrotron radiation [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/ xrays3.html ]. But what powers this cosmic blowtorch? Ultimately, the jet is thought to be produced as matter [ http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure/ index.html ] near the center of M87 swirls toward a spinning, supermassive black hole. Strong electromagnetic forces are generated and eject material away from the black hole [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/ black_holes.html ] along the axis of rotation in a narrow jet. Galaxy M87 [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/public/2000july6/ ngc4486.html ] is about 50 million light-years away and reigns as the large central elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo.html ]. |
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Elliptical Galaxy M87
| Title |
Elliptical Galaxy M87 |
| Explanation |
Elliptical galaxy M87 is a type of galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#galaxy ] that looks much different than our own Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950908.html ]. But even for an elliptical galaxy M [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#messier ]87 is peculiar. M87 is much bigger than an average galaxy, appears at the center of a whole cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster, and shows a very high number of globular clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950726.html ]. These globular clusters are visible as faint spots surrounding the bright center of M87. In general, elliptical galaxies contain similar numbers of stars as spiral galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950912.html ], but are ellipsoidal in shape (spirals are mostly flat), have no spiral structure, and little gas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#hydrogen ] and dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#dust ]. This picture is number sixty on a publicly posted list of images [ http://aaoepp.aao.gov.au/images.html ] from the Anglo-Australian Telescope [ http://aaoepp.aao.gov.au/general.html ] (AAT). |
|
A Black Hole in M87's Center
…
| Title |
A Black Hole in M87's Center? |
| Explanation |
The center of nearby giant galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950913.html ] is a dense and violent place. In this 1994 photograph [ http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/press-releases/94-23.txt ] by the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951116.html ], a disk of hot gas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#hydrogen ] was found to be orbiting at the center of this massive elliptical galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960106.html ]. The disk is evident on the lower left of the above photograph. The rotation speed of gas in this disk indicates the mass of the object the gas is orbiting, while the size of the disk indicates an approximate volume of the central object. These observations [ http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/StarCatcher/1stServicing/Science94.html ] yield a central density so high that the only hypothesized object that could live there is a black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951230.html ]. The picture also shows a highly energetic jet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960306.html ] emanating from the central object. The jet is composed of fast moving charged particles and has broken into knots as small as 10 light years across. |
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The Virgo Cluster: Hot Plasm
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| Title |
The Virgo Cluster: Hot Plasma and Dark Matter |
| Explanation |
This ROSAT image [ http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/white/htxs/virgo.html ] of the Virgo cluster of galaxies [ http://bozo.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/virgo.html ] reveals a hot X-ray emitting plasma or gas with a temperature of 10-100 million degrees pervading the cluster. False colors have been used to represent the intensity of X-ray emission. The large area of X-ray emission, just below and left of center, is about 1 million light-years across. The giant elliptical galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950913.html ], the biggest member of the cluster [ http://crux.astr.ua.edu/white/mug/cluster/ ], is centered in that area while other cluster members [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951113.html ] are scattered around it. By adding up the amount of X-ray emitting gas astronomers have found that its total mass is up to 5 times the total mass of the cluster galaxies themselves - yet all this matter still does not produce nearly enough gravity to keep the cluster from flying apart! Where is the unseen mass? Because galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960405.html ], this mysterious Dark Matter [ http://astro.queensu.ca/~dursi/dm-tutorial/dm1.html ] must dominate the cosmos but its nature [ http://physics7.berkeley.edu/darkmat/dm.html ] is still an open question [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/matter.html ]. |
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Tomorrow's picture: A Black
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| Title |
Tomorrow's picture: A Black Hole in M87? [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970405.html ] |
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Tomorrow's picture: Mercury
…
| Title |
Tomorrow's picture: Mercury Astronauts and a Redstone [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970406.html ] |
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Elliptical Galaxy M87
| Title |
Elliptical Galaxy M87 |
| Explanation |
Elliptical galaxy M87 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m087.html ] is a type of galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#galaxy ] that looks much different than our own Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/milky_way.html ]. Even for an elliptical galaxy [ http://www.seds.org/messier/elli.html ], though, M87 is peculiar. M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?m87 ] is much bigger than an average galaxy, appears near the center of a whole cluster of galaxies [ http://www.astr.ua.edu/gifimages/coma.html ] known as the Virgo Cluster [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030804.html ], and shows an unusually high number of globular clusters. These globular clusters [ http://www.seds.org/messier/glob.html ] are visible as faint spots surrounding the bright center of M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011101.html ]. In general, elliptical galaxies [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/galaxies/elliptical.html ] contain similar numbers of stars as spiral galaxies [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/galaxies/spiral.html ], but are ellipsoidal in shape (spirals are mostly flat), have no spiral structure, and little gas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010113.html ] and dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html ]. The above image [ http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/HawaiianStarlight/AIOM/English/CFHT-Coelum-AIOM-Jun2004.html ] of M87 was taken recently by the Canada-France-Hawaii [ http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/ ] Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000905.html ] on top of the dormant volcano Mauna Kea [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031203.html ] in Hawaii [ http://www.state.hi.us ], USA [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html ]. |
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M87's Energetic Jet
| Title |
M87's Energetic Jet |
| Explanation |
An energetic jet [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/0134/index.html ] from the core of giant elliptical galaxy M87 stretches outward for 5,000 light-years. This monstrous [ http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/ stardate.html ] jet appears [ http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/jetplane.html ] in the panels above to be a knotted and irregular structure, detected across the spectrum [ http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/ waves3.html ], from x-ray to optical [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000706.html ] to radio [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990216.html ] wavelengths. In all these bands [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0134/ 0134_3band.jpg ], the observed emission is likely created as high energy electrons spiral along magnetic field lines, so called synchrotron radiation [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/ xrays3.html ]. But what powers this cosmic blowtorch? Ultimately, the jet is thought to be produced as matter [ http://particleadventure.org/particleadventure/ index.html ] near the center of M87 swirls toward a spinning, supermassive black hole. Strong electromagnetic forces are generated and eject material away from the black hole [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/ black_holes.html ] along the axis of rotation in a narrow jet. Galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040616.html ] is about 50 million light-years away and reigns as the large central elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo.html ]. |
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Markarian's Chain of Galaxie
…
| Title |
Markarian's Chain of Galaxies |
| Explanation |
Across the heart of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000220.html ] lies a striking string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain. The chain, pictured above [ http://www.starshadows.com/MarkarianRGJH.html ], is highlighted on the upper right with two large but featureless lenticular [ http://www.seds.org/messier/lenticul.html ] galaxies, M84 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m084.html ] and M86 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m086.html ], and connects to the large spiral [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/galaxies/spiral.html ] on the lower left, M88 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m088.html ]. Prominent on the lower right but not part of Markarian's Chain [ http://www.starrywonders.com/markarian.html ] is the giant elliptical [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/elliptical_galaxies.html ] galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040616.html ]. The home Virgo Cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo.html ] is the nearest cluster of galaxies [ http://www.astr.ua.edu/white/mug/cluster/clusters.html ], contains over 2000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/local.html ] surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990224.html ]. The center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050213.html ] of the Virgo Cluster [ http://www.seds.org/messier/more/virgo.html ] is located about 70 million light years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ] away toward the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] of Virgo [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=86 ]. At least seven galaxies in the chain [ http://www.astropix.com/HTML/C_SPRING/MARKS.HTM ] appear to move coherently [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1983AN....304...69L ], although others appear to be superposed by chance. |
|
The Large and Small of M87
| Title |
The Large and Small of M87 |
| Explanation |
The small core of elliptical galaxy M87 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950913.html ] appears to be energizing its whole galactic neighborhood. Recent images [ http://www.nrao.edu/pr/m87big.html ] from the Very Large Array [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970727.html ] (VLA) of radio telescopes [ http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~kotaro/RTs/rts.html ] 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/~fowen/M87.html ]. The source creating and feeding the bubbles has been traced to jets [ http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/merlin/about/layman/jet.html ] pointing back to M87's center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970405.html ], where a supermassive black hole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970114.html ] is thought to live. The smallest scale on the above radio-map [ http://www.nrao.edu/~fowen/M87_halo.html ] is 0.2 light-years and imaged by many radio telescopes working together (VLBI [ http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/merlin/about/layman/vlbi.html ]). The labeled numbers refer to the wavelength of the radio waves observed. The exact composition of these jets is not known [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1993MNRAS.264..228C&db_key=AST&high=34f6e1de7f07509 ], but thought to contain various subatomic particles [ http://pdg.lbl.gov/cpep/adventure_home.html ]. |
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