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On April 10, 2019, the Horizon Telescope Event (EHT) unveiled
the very first image of the event horizon of a black hole, the area
beyond which light can not escape the immense gravity of the black hole. This giant
black hole, with a mass of 6.5 billion suns, is located in the elliptical
Messier 87 galaxy (M87). EHT is an international collaboration whose support to
the United States includes the National Science Foundation.
This image of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the
the entire galaxy M87 in infrared light. The EHT image, on the contrary, is based on
light in the radio wave lengths and showed the shadow of the black hole against the
backdrop of high energy materials around him.
Located about 55 million light-years away from Earth, the M87 has
has been the subject of astronomical studies for over 100 years and has been
pictured by many observatories of NASA, including the Hubble Space
Telescope, the X-ray observatory of Chandra
and NuSTAR.
In 1918, astronomer Heber Curtis noticed for the first time "a curious straight line
ray "extending from the center of the galaxy.This luminous stream of high energy
material, produced by a disc of material rapidly rotating around the black hole,
is visible in several wavelengths of light, X-ray radio waves. When
the particles in the jet impact the interstellar medium (the sparse material
filling the space between the stars in M87), they create a shock wave that radiates
in the infrared and radio wavelengths of light but not in visible light. in the
Spitzer image, the shock wave is more important than the jet itself.
The brightest jet, located to the right of the galaxy
center, travel almost directly to Earth. Its brightness is amplified
because of its high speed in our direction but even more because of that
Scientists call the "relativistic effects", which result from the
the material in the jet moves near the speed of light. The trajectory of the jet
is just slightly off our line of sight compared to the galaxy, so we
can still see part of the jet length. The shock wave starts around the
point where the jet seems to bend down, highlighting areas where the
fast-moving particles collide with the gas in the galaxy and slow down.
The second throw, on the other hand, is moving away from
we that the relativistic effects make it invisible at all wavelengths. But
The shock wave that it creates in the interstellar medium is still visible here.
Located on the left side of the center of the galaxy, the
shockwave looks like an inverted letter "C." Although not visible in
optical images, the lobe can also be seen in radio waves, as in this picture
the very large network of the National Observatory of Radioastronomy.
By combining observations in the infrared, radio waves,
visible light, X-rays and extremely energetic gamma rays, scientists can study
the physics of these powerful jets. Scientists are always looking for a solid
theoretical understanding of how gas shot in black holes creates
outgoing jets.
Infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.5 microns is rendered
in blue and green, showing the distribution of the stars, while the dust includes
shine at 8.0 microns are indicated in red. The picture was taken during
The initial mission "cold" Spitzer.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's scientific mission
Direction to Washington. Scientific operations are conducted at Spitzer
Scientific Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based in Lockheed
Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. The data is archived in the infrared
Scientific Archives hosted at IPAC in Caltech. Caltech manages the JPL for NASA.
More information about Spitzer is available on his website:
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
Media contact
Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
626-808-2469
[email protected]
2019-074
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