Figure 24-8: R I V U X G
Giant Elliptical Galaxy M87 M87 is located near the center of the sprawling, rich Virgo cluster, which is about 50 million ly from Earth. Embedded in this radio image of gas is the galaxy M87 from which the gas has been ejected (bottom inset). The bottom inset is a visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope, and the rest are at radio wavelengths. As the images zoom into smaller scales, they reveal a variety of details about the structure of the jets of gas. M87’s extraordinarily bright nucleus and the gas jets result from a 3-billion-M⊙ black hole, whose gravity causes huge amounts of gas and an enormous number of stars to crowd around it.
Giant Elliptical Galaxy M87 M87 is located near the center of the sprawling, rich Virgo cluster, which is about 50 million ly from Earth. Embedded in this radio image of gas is the galaxy M87 from which the gas has been ejected (bottom inset). The bottom inset is a visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope, and the rest are at radio wavelengths. As the images zoom into smaller scales, they reveal a variety of details about the structure of the jets of gas. M87’s extraordinarily bright nucleus and the gas jets result from a 3-billion-M⊙ black hole, whose gravity causes huge amounts of gas and an enormous number of stars to crowd around it.
(NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team [STScI/AURA]; Frazer Owen [NRAO], John Biretta [STScI] and colleagues)