Radio Telescopes Capture Best-Ever Snapshot of Black Hole Jets

(Credit: ESO/WFI (visible); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (microwave); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray))

ScienceDaily (May 20, 2011) — An international team, including NASA-funded researchers, using radio telescopes located throughout the Southern Hemisphere has produced the most detailed image of particle jets erupting from a supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy.The new image shows a region less than 4.2 light-years across -- less than the distance between our sun and the nearest star. Radio-emitting features as small as 15 light-days can be seen, making this the highest-resolution view of galactic jets ever made. The study will appear in the June issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is available online.

Source

I really enjoy when photos like these are released. It's hard to imagine such beauty can exist in a universe full of chaos.
What's even more fascinating is this picture was taken by 9 different tellescopes around the world, and the information from each was corroborated and the end result is no less than stunning.Enjoy

I think that has to be my new favourite 'space' picture. Alot of others look fantastic, but generally they're just masses of various gases etc. that are just random formings. This, on the other hand, is the first real picture of a blackhole that I've seen, if I remember rightly anyway

S+F for the great find, thanks OP

Kyle

This has fascinated me for so long and I can't wait to see how much more we can learn about black holes. The sheer energy those things have is above beyond and anything I could ever imagine.

Did they mention what kind of image enhancement they used to make it visible? I didn't know you could see what it's emitting as I thought it was mostly in the wavelengths that we can't see!

They say this galaxy is very luminous. I wonder if this a quasar in the making?

reply to post by highfreq


Well now.

THAT sure is purdy.

S+F

To an untrained eye, such as myself.... I would have never thought that in amongst the brightness of the formation that a black hole was the cause for the brilliance .

The beauty and power of that photo takes the breath away! Thank you for posting OP.

S+F

Thanks a lot, OP...

Great pic, I too believe it's the first time I see a real black hole and so well defined. The pic has been made in this way

Merging X-ray data (blue) from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with microwave (orange) and visible images

so if I am not wrong we could never see the same with "naked eye".

amazing i have a new avatar now

Hello ATSers, take a look at the picture.
Now take a look at me.
Now take a look at the jets coming out from a black hole,
unfortunately that is one powerful black hole.

Anyway, the jets are almost as long as the galaxy o.o

beautifull picture, thanks for sharing

reply to post by SecrecyDefied

The article has a few statistics on the size.

The new image shows a region less than 4.2 light-years across -- less than the distance between our sun and the nearest star. Radio-emitting features as small as 15 light-days can be seen, making this the highest-resolution view of galactic jets ever made.

Source

If they can get pictures of galaxies that look like these....why can't they zoom into planets in our own galaxy and look for signs of life?

Originally posted by Jetman44
If they can get pictures of galaxies that look like these....why can't they zoom into planets in our own galaxy and look for signs of life?

...because then everybody would know there were signs of life.
I think everybody gets what you're saying but the only problem with that is
it makes sense but somehow I don't think it's that easy.
Is there an Astrobiologist in the house?

reply to post by highfreq


Stunning image indeed.

But let's agree on "impressive" rather than "beautiful" because most likely this thing has sucked up a quadrillion life forms while you wrote your post lol

If only we could harness the thrust capability of a black hole and close it at our will.... Then we could finally travel to other worlds.

So...does our black hole at the center of our galaxy do that too? Is that business as usual or is that some large event that happens only every so often....I wonder if it affects the edges of the galaxy or not...

reply to post by highfreq


thank you for bringing this to our ATS collective attension, s+f


i am going to say something that will not be well received,
if nothing can escape a black hole,
and nothing could power the jet except a black hole,

how can both statements be true?

could blackholes create "heavey elements" ?
well if material from stars is being "ejected" at near light speed, from the power of a black hole
then yes black holes jets could combine atoms to form heaver elements.

so if a jet contains IRON is that IRON from the star that got crushed or
is the power of the black hole creating iron from lighter elements, or
recycling the matter for future stars to form?

xploder

Nice pic, but a simple question....

If NOTHING - not even photons - can escape the massive gravitational pull of a black hole, then how can jets of particles accelerate outward from it at enormous velocities?

In other words, there are no such things as black holes! This is a myth being propagated by a coterie of scientists who's funding is making them laugh all the way to the bank!

Noted physicist Stephen J. Crothers says that Black Holes have been conjured up by combination of confusion, superstition and ineptitude, and is sustained by widespread suppression of facts, both physical and theoretical.

The majority of people nowadays neither know nor care what Theoretical Physics is or what it does. Nothing less than a whole new philosophical approach - a new paradigm, in effect - is now long overdue.

Like Plasma Cosmology?

Thats freaking amazing !
Thanks for sharing.
New favorite space picture