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An image of NASA shows the M87 galaxy, in the center of which is the black hole that was imaged for the first time earlier this month (bottom box). The enlarged upper zone shows the shock waves caused by the jets of plasma vomited by the black hole.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / IPAC / Collaboration with Event Horizon Telescope
A stunning new image reveals that two streams of high-energy material have been spitting almost at the speed of light since the very first black hole photographed.
The supermassive black hole, M87 – nicknamed Pōwehi – lives 55 million light-years from Earth in a galaxy called Messier 87. The new image of M87 was released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Supermassive black holes engulf everything around them. But some particles do not fall into the black hole and, for reasons unknown to scientists, are propelled out of the hole at high speed, in opposite directions. [All Your Questions About the New Black Hole Image Answered]
When the particles of these high-speed jets interact with the gas in the vast empty space around a black hole, they slow down and create shock waves. These shock waves emit radiation that our devices can detect.
This photo of M87 shows the shock waves created by the jets emerging from Pōwehi's hold – one aimed almost directly at our planet and the other away from the Earth, according to one NASA reaction propulsion laboratory release.
The high-speed jet traveling to Earth is visible to the right of the enlarged photo. The right side of the line reveals the high speed jet itself; where the line begins to bend – because the particles slow down – begins the shock wave.
According to the release, the brightness of the jet is amplified because it moves very quickly in our direction. But the jet that moves in the opposite direction (to the left of the image) moves away so quickly from us that it is invisible. The shock wave it creates is however visible and looks like the letter "C".
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope measured the infrared light emanating from this galaxy. This contrasts with the radio waves that were assembled to produce the very first picture of a black hole, published earlier this month.
These throws are not a new discovery, however. Astronomer Heber Curtis discovered for the first time "a curious straight ray" emanating from the center of the M87 more than a century ago, according to the statement. Since then, astronomers have struggled to understand how and why they are formed.
Originally published on Science live.
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