The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87)
is home to the
supermassive black hole captured by planet Earth's
Event Horizon Telescope
in the first ever image of a black hole.
Giant of the Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away,
M87 is the large galaxy rendered in blue hues in this infrared
image from the Spitzer Space telescope.
Though M87 appears mostly featureless and cloud-like,
the Spitzer image does record details of relativistic
jets blasting from the galaxy's central region.
Shown in the inset at top right, the jets themselves
span thousands of light-years.
The brighter jet seen on the
right is approaching and close to our line of sight.
Opposite, the shock created by the otherwise unseen receding jet
lights up a fainter arc of material.
Inset at bottom right, the
historic black hole image is shown
in context, at the center of giant galaxy and relativistic jets.
Completely unresolved in the Spitzer image, the supermassive
black hole surrounded by infalling material is the source of
enormous energy driving
the relativistic jets from the center of active galaxy M87.