Tag Archive for 'Messier 87'

This artist’s impression shows the locations of multiple radio observatories across the planet, which participated in a pilot experiment conducted by the EHT Collaboration that obtained the highest-resolution observations from the ground. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

EHT Makes Highest-Resolution Black Hole Detections Yet from Earth

Aug 27, 2024 by News Staff

Astrophysicists with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration have conducted test observations achieving the highest resolution ever obtained from...

The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released new images of M87* from observations taken in April 2018, one year after the first observations in April 2017. The new observations reveal a familiar, bright ring of emission, the same size as as first observed. The brightest part of the ring has shifted by about 30º, to a 5 o’clock position, relative to the 2017 image. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

New Observations of Messier 87’s Black Hole Support Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

Jan 23, 2024 by News Staff

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration reported the first-ever event-horizon-scale images of a black hole, resolving the central...

Schematic representation of the tilted accretion disk model. The black hole spin axis is assumed to be straight up and down in this illustration. The jet direction points almost perpendicular to the disk plane. The misalignment between the black hole spin axis and disk rotation axis triggers the precession of the disk and jet. Image credit: Cui et al. / Intouchable Lab@Openverse / Zhejiang Lab.

Messier 87’s Supermassive Black Hole is Indeed Spinning, Astronomers Say

Sep 27, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Messier 87 is a giant elliptical galaxy located some 53 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. In April 2019, astronomers from the Event...

In this artist’s conception, M87*’s massive jet is seen rising up from the center of the black hole. Image credit: S. Dagnello, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

New Images of Messier 87’s Black Hole Reveal Glowing Ring and Powerful Jet

Apr 27, 2023 by News Staff

In 2017, astronomers from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration captured the first image of a black hole by coordinating radio dishes around...

A photo of the huge elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (left) is compared to its 3D shape as gleaned from meticulous observations made with Hubble and Keck telescopes (right). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI / Frank Summers, STScI / Chung-Pei Ma, UC Berkeley.

Astronomers Measure 3D Shape of Messier 87 and Mass of Its Central Black Hole

Apr 17, 2023 by News Staff

Messier 87, a massive elliptical galaxy located approximately 53 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo, turns out to be triaxial, or potato-shaped,...

New image of M87* generated by the PRIMO algorithm using the 2017 EHT data. Image credit: Medeiros et al., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/acc32d.

EHT Image of Messier 87’s Black Hole Reconstructed with Novel Machine Learning Algorithm

Apr 13, 2023 by News Staff

The iconic Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) image of the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87 has received its first official makeover, thanks...

The emission from M87* has been resolved into a bright, thin ring (orange colormap), arising from the infinite sequence of additional images of the emission region, and the more diffuse primary image, produced by the photons that come directly toward Earth (in blue contours); when viewed at the imaging resolution of the Event Horizon Telescope, the two components blur together; however, by separately searching for the thin ring, it is possible to sharpen the view of M87*, isolating the fingerprint of strong gravity. Image credit: Broderick et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac7c1d.

Astrophysicists Produce Image of Supermassive Black Hole’s Photon Ring

Aug 17, 2022 by News Staff

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration released stunning images of M87*, a supermassive black hole in the center of Messier 87,...

VLA image of the Messier 87 radio jet, made at multiple radio frequencies. The jet seen in this image is about 8,000 light-years long. This image clearly shows the corkscrew-like helical structure in the inner part of the jet, which originates at the bright spot at the left, at the core of the galaxy, where a supermassive black hole resides. Image credit: Sophia Dagnello / NRAO / AUI / NSF / Pasetto et al., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac3a88.

Astronomers Spot Double-Helix Structure in Messier 87

Dec 8, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array have captured unprecedented high-fidelity radio images of a jet of material propelled from the...

This EHT image shows the polarized view of the black hole in Messier 87. The lines mark the orientation of polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the shadow of the black hole. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

EHT Captures Polarized-Light Image of Messier 87’s Supermassive Black Hole

Mar 24, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes (ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-m telescope,...

Visualization of the new gauge developed to test the predictions of modified gravity theories against the measurement of the size of M87*’s shadow. Image credit: D. Psaltis, University of Arizona / EHT Collaboration.

Shadow of Messier 87’s Supermassive Black Hole Puts General Relativity to Test

Oct 2, 2020 by News Staff

The 2017 observations from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) of M87*, a 6.5-billion-solar-mass black hole in the center of the giant elliptical galaxy...

The EHT Collaboration unveiled the first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the center of the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 and its shadow. The shadow of a black hole seen here is the closest we can come to an image of the black hole itself, a completely dark object from which light cannot escape. The black hole’s boundary -- the event horizon from which the EHT takes its name -- is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and measures just under 25 billion miles (40 billion km) across. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

Crescent Shadow of Messier 87’s Supermassive Black Hole is Wobbling

Sep 23, 2020 by News Staff

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) delivered the first resolved images of M87*, the supermassive black hole in the center of the giant elliptical...

Time-averaged image of a general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the supermassive black hole in Messier 87. Image credit: Johnson et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz1310.

Astronomers Discover Way to Get Sharp Images of Black Hole’s Photon Rings

Mar 19, 2020 by News Staff

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration released stunning images of the supermassive black hole in Messier 87, a giant elliptical...

Event Horizon Telescope Captures First Image of Black Hole

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes (ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-m telescope,...

Ahn et al found two ultra-compact dwarf galaxies, VUCD3 and M59cO, with supermassive black holes. The findings suggest that these dwarf galaxies are likely tiny leftovers of larger galaxies that were stripped of their outer layers after colliding into other, larger galaxies Messier 87 and Messier 59, respectively. Image credit: NASA / Space Telescope Science Institute.

Researchers Find Supermassive Black Holes in Two Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies

Apr 18, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers and astrophysicists, led by University of Utah, has detected supermassive black holes in two ultra-compact dwarf galaxies:...

Messier 87 is the dominant galaxy at the center of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Detect Stellar Pulsations in Messier 87

Nov 16, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of astronomers has measured the ‘heartbeats’ of stars within Messier 87, a giant elliptical galaxy located some 53 million light-years from...

The huge halo around the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 appears on this image. The image also reveals many other galaxies forming the Virgo Cluster, of which Messier 87 is the largest member. Image credit: Chris Mihos, Case Western Reserve University / ESO.

Astronomers Uncover Evidence of Messier 87’s Cannibalistic Past

Jun 25, 2015 by News Staff

A giant elliptical galaxy called Messier 87 merged with a medium-sized spiral galaxy in the last billion years, according to a comprehensive study of 300...

HVGC-1: Astronomers Discover Hypervelocity Star Cluster

May 1, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr Nelson Caldwell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has discovered a globular star cluster thrown out...