A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a spiral-shaped disk of hot gas in the core of active galaxy M87. HST measurements show the disk is rotating so rapidly it contains a massive black hole at its hub.

Credit: Holland Ford, Space Telescope Science Institute/Johns Hopkins University; Richard Harms, Applied Research Corp.; Zlatan Tsvetanov, Arthur Davidsen, and Gerard Kriss at Johns Hopkins; Ralph Bohlin and GeorgeHartig at Space Telescope Science Institute; Linda Dressel and Ajay K.Kochhar at Applied Research Corp. in Landover, Md.; and Bruce Margon fromthe University of Washington in Seattle NASA/ESA