The elliptical galaxy M87 sits 55 million light-years away, at the heart of the nearby Virgo Cluster. Deep inside this galaxy lurks a supermassive black hole that weighs 6.5 billion times the mass of our Sun. That black hole instantly became famous in 2019 when the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration released its portrait — the first ever direct image of the shadow of a black hole.
New Images of M87's Black Hole Reveal Its Swirling Magnetic Field
The Event Horizon Telescope’s newest images of M87’s supermassive black hole hint at how its jets are fired far into space.
Mar 24, 2021 6:15 PMMar 24, 2021 6:13 PM
The magnetic field around M87’s supermassive black tweaks the orientation of light waves emitted from the hot, glowing accretion disk (orange) around the black hole. Superimposed as lines on the disk, this signature reveals information about the powerful magnetic field surrounding the black hole. (Credit: EHT Collaboration)
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