EHT Resolves Central Jet from Black Hole in Cen A
Image Credit:
Radboud University; CSIRO/ATNF/I.Feain et al., R.Morganti et al., N.Junkes et al.; ESO/WFI; MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A. Weiss et al.; NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Kraft et al.; TANAMI/C. Mueller et al.; EHT/M. Janssen et al.
How do supermassive black holes create powerful jets?
To help find out, the
Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) imaged the center of the nearby
active galaxy
Centaurus A.
The cascade of
featured inset images shows Cen A from it largest,
taking up more sky than many moons,
to its now finest, taking up only as much sky as an
golf ball on the moon.
The new image shows what may look like two jets -- but is actually two sides of a
single jet.
This newly discovered jet-edge brightening does not solve the
jet-creation mystery, but does imply that the particle outflow is confined by a strong pressure -- possibly involving a
magnetic field.
The EHT is a coordination of radio telescopes from around
the Earth -- from the
Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in
Hawaii USA, to
ALMA in
Chile, to
NOEMA in
France, and
more.
The EHT will continue to observe massive, nearby
black
holes and their energetic surroundings.
