m87 Archives

November 15, 2024November 15, 2024 by Matt Williams

Scientists Develop Technique to Create 3D Models of Cosmic Structures

Milky Way centre by the MeerKAT array of 65 radio dishes in South Africa. Credit: SAROA

For decades, astronomers have used powerful instruments to capture images of the cosmos in various wavelengths. This includes optical images, where visible light is observed, and images that capture non-visible radiation, ranging from the radio and infrared to the X-ray and Gamma-ray wavelengths. However, these two-dimensional images do not allow scientists to infer what the objects look like in three dimensions. Transforming these images into a 3D space could lead to a better understanding of the physics that drives our Universe.

In a recent study, an international team of researchers led by the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics (MIfA) at the University of Minnesota announced the development of a new technique for radio astronomy. This first-ever technique reconstructs radio images into three-dimensional “Pseudo3D cubes” that allow astronomers to get a better idea of what cosmic structures look like. This technique could lead to an improved understanding of how galaxies, massive black holes, jet structures, and the Universe work.

October 2, 2024October 2, 2024 by Matt Williams

Jets From Supermassive Black Holes Create New Stars Along Their Trajectory

Artist's concept looking down into the core of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. Credit: NASA/ESA,/J. Olmsted (STScI)

Since the 1970s, astronomers have observed that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) reside at the centers of most massive galaxies. In some cases, these black holes accelerate gas and dust from their poles, forming relativistic jets that can extend for thousands of light-years. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers observed the jet emanating from the center of M87, the supermassive galaxy located 53.5 million light-years away. To their surprise, the team observed nova erupting along the jet’s trajectory, twice as many as they observed in M87 itself.

July 23, 2024July 23, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope To Unlock Mysteries of Black Holes

Impact of scattering on the observed polarimetric spiral phase from one 345 GHz frame of the GRMHD simulation of Sgr A*

The prospect of actually resolving the event horizon of black holes feels like the stuff of science fiction yet it is a reality. Already the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has resolved the horizon of the black holes at the centre of the Milky Way and M87. A team of astronomers are now looking to the next generation of the EHT which will work at multiple frequencies with more telescopes than EHT. A new paper suggests it may even be possible to capture the ring where light goes into orbit around the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

June 30, 2024June 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

What’s Next for the Event Horizon Telescope? Twelve Possible New Targets

Both the Milky Way and a galaxy known as M87 have supermassive black holes at their core. These are the two largest black holes we know about and the Event Horizon Telescope has just captured stunning images of their event horizons. A new paper looks at what we might expect from a next generation EHT and highlights twelve targets that should be top of the list.

October 8, 2023October 8, 2023 by Scott Alan Johnston

M87's Jet is Triggering Novae

The jet emerging from the galactic core of M87. NASA/STScI/AURA.

Everyone loves a good mystery, and astronomers have just uncovered a new one in a nearby supermassive galaxy called M87. Like most galaxies, M87 regularly plays host to a smattering of stellar explosions called novae, each the result of a star stealing material from a neighbour. M87 also features a massive jet of plasma blasting out into deep space from the galactic core. These phenomena: the jet and the novae, are unrelated astronomical occurrences, or so scientists believed. But astronomers recently discovered that the novae in M87 seem to be uncharacteristically aligned along the jet, instead of scattered randomly throughout the galaxy. Is the jet somehow triggering nova explosions?

It might be, but the mystery is: how?

December 13, 2021December 13, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick

M87’s Supermassive Black Hole is Spewing out a Spiraling jet of Material

Patterns in nature often occur in more than one place. Spirals, symmetry, and chaos all impact natural phenomena, from the shape of a shell to the course of a river. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the most famous and fundamental shapes from biology also appears in astrophysics. Yes, scientists have found a double-helix structure in the magnetic field of M87. And it looks just like a super enlarged DNA strand.

July 29, 2021July 29, 2021 by Matt Williams

The Event Horizon Telescope Zooms in on Another Supermassive Black Hole

Credit: M. Janssen, H. Falcke, M. Kadler, E. Ros, M. Wielgus et al.

On April 10th, 2019, the world was treated to the first image of a black hole, courtesy of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Specifically, the image was of the Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH) at the center of the supergiant elliptical galaxy known as M87 (aka. Virgo A). These powerful forces of nature are found at the centers of most massive galaxies, which include the Milky Way (where the SMBH known as Sagittarius A* is located).

Using a technique known as Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), this image signaled the birth of a new era for astronomers, where they can finally conduct detailed studies of these powerful forces of nature. Thanks to research performed by the EHT Collaboration team during a six-hour observation period in 2017, astronomers are now being treated to images of the core region of Centaurus A and the radio jet emanating from it.

December 15, 2020December 15, 2020 by Matthew Cimone

A Galaxy is Making New Stars Faster Than its Black Hole Can Starve Them for Fuel

Computer Simulation of a Quasar, a Supermassive Black Hole that is actively feeding and creating tremendous energy - created in "SpaceEngine" pro by author

A monster lurks at the heart of many galaxies – even our own Milky Way. This monster possesses the mass of millions or billions of Suns. Immense gravity shrouds it within a dark cocoon of space and time – a supermassive black hole. But while hidden in darkness and difficult to observe, black holes can also shine brighter than an entire galaxy. When feeding, these sleeping monsters awaken transforming into a quasar – one of the Universe’s most luminous objects. The energy a quasar radiates into space is so powerful, it can interfere with star formation for thousands of light years across their host galaxies. But one galaxy appears to be winning a struggle against its awoken blazing monster and in a recent paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, astronomers are trying to determine how this galaxy survives.

Animation of Interstellar Matter Falling into a Black Hole Creating a Quasar – ESA

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020 by Evan Gough

M87’s Black Hole is Firing Out Jets that Travel 99% the Speed of Light

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have seen that the famous giant black hole in Messier 87 is propelling particles at speeds greater than 99% of the speed of light. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/B. Snios et al.

Can black holes be famous? If they can, then the one at the heart of the M87 galaxy qualifies. And this famous black hole is emitting jets of material that travel at near the speed of light.

September 28, 2019September 28, 2019 by Matt Williams

New Technique for Estimating the Mass of a Black Hole

A Hubble Space Telescope view of M87's core and its jet. it points nearly directly at us and is also known as a blazar. Astronomers are studying other blazars that have meandering jets and think that binary black holes may be hidden inside some of them. Courtesy STScI.

Black holes are the one the most intriguing and awe-inspiring forces of nature. They are also one of the most mysterious because of the way the rules of conventional physics break down in their presence. Despite decades of research and observations there is still much we don’t know about them. In fact, until recently, astronomers had never seen an image of black hole and were unable to guage their mass.

However, a team of physicist from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) recently announced that they had devised a way to indirectly measure the mass of a black hole while also confirming its existence. In a recent study, they showed how they tested this method on the recently-imaged supermassive black hole at the center of the Messier 87 active galaxy.