A Cosmic Searchlight
Streaming out from the centre of the galaxy M87 like a cosmic searchlight is one of nature's most amazing phenomena, a black-hole-powered jet of electrons and other sub-atomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light. In this Hubble telescope image, the blue jet contrasts with the yellow glow from the combined light of billions of unseen stars and the yellow, point-like clusters of stars that make up this galaxy. Lying at the centre of M87, the monstrous black hole has swallowed up matter equal to 2 billion times our Sun's mass. M87 is 50 million light-years from Earth.
Credit:
About the Image
NASA press release
NASA caption
NASA caption
| Id: | opo0020a |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 6 July 2000, 07:00 |
| Size: | 1222 x 1276 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Messier 87, NGC 4486, Virgo Galaxy |
| Type: | • Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Elliptical • Local Universe : Galaxy : Size : Giant • Local Universe : Galaxy : Activity : AGN |
| Distance: | 55 million light years |
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
| Ultraviolet U |
300 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical B |
450 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical V |
606 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Infrared I |
814 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
