The jets emanating from a famous black hole are cruising along at about 99% the speed of light, according to new observations.
Researchers spotted the speedy jets emanating from a black hole in the galaxy Messier 87 (M87) — the same black hole that was imaged directly for the first time last year .
NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory imaged knots of material speeding away from the accretion disk, where gas, dust and other material swirl around the black hole. Some of the material falls into the black hole, and some is redirected away into jets of material that follow magnetic field lines.
In case you are keeping track:
M87's Black Hole is Firing Out Jets that Travel 99% the Speed of Light - Universe Today
Can black holes be famous? If they can, then the one at the heart of the M87 galaxy qualifies. And this famous black hole is emitting jets of material that travel at near the speed of light.
The black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy bears the name M87*, and astronomers have been observing it for a long time. Last year, the Event Horizon Telescope captured an image of M87*, the first-ever image of a black hole. That image only added to M87*'s fame.
Astronomers Witness Supermassive Black Hole Firing Out Jets at 99% The Speed of Light
The famous black hole at the heart of the M87 galaxy is emitting jets of material that travel at near the speed of light.
The black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy bears the name M87*, and astronomers have been observing it for a long time. Last year, the Event Horizon Telescope captured an image of M87*, the first-ever image of a black hole. That image only added to M87*'s fame.
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M87 is also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486. It's a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo, about 53 million light years away from us. M87 spans about 240,000 light years, a little more than the Milky Way.
Black hole transient GRS 1716−249 investigated in hard and intermediate states
During these outbursts, astronomers observe mainly the hard and soft spectral states. In the hard state, the spectrum is dominated by a power law-shaped continuum, while in the soft state, the spectrum is dominated by a disc-blackbody emission. However, some black hole XRBs also exhibit an intermediate state in which the hard power-law continuum and a disc thermal emission component make approximately the same contribution to the total spectrum.
Located some 7,800 light years away, GRS 1716−249 is a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) discovered in 1993. The source is known to experience outbursts, and one of them, the most recent, was detected in December, 2016. Astronomers found that during this outburst , GRS 1716−249 approached the soft state three times; however, it never reached the canonical soft state.
Not to change the topic here:
Gravitational wave mystery could be a sign of a new kind of black hole | New Scientist
A strange set of gravitational waves have been sent across space by a mysterious object. It could be the smallest black hole ever found or the largest neutron star.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time that are caused by the motion of massive objects. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has detected these waves from many pairs of black holes colliding over the past few years, as well as one pair of neutron stars .
Black hole shock: THIS is where you will travel to if you fall into a black hole | Science | News
Space and time are intertwined, called space-time, and gravity has the ability to stretch space-time. Objects with a large mass will be able to stretch space-time to the point where our perception of it changes, known as time dilation. The more mass an object has, the more it stretches and slows down time.
Sagittarius A* has a radius of 22 million kilometres and a mass of more than four million times that of the Sun.
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And because it is so heavy, it has the ability to completely stretch out space-time, and travelling towards its centre means time would almost come to a standstill for you.
Pair of black holes in galaxy crash revealed in detailed image - Business Insider
But in the constellation of Ophiuchus, about 400 million light-years from Earth, two galaxies are almost ready to become one.
Both galaxies contain a supermassive black hole in their center, and those are expected to merge as well.
This whole process is difficult to capture on camera, however. Black holes' gravity is so strong that nothing can escape — not even light — so astronomers attempting to see them have to rely on light from the matter that gets sucked in (before it disappears). The first-ever photograph of a supermassive black hole was published in April 2019.
The Milky Way may have two supermassive black holes | Astronomy.com
Do supermassive black holes have friends? The nature of galaxy formation suggests that the answer is yes, and in fact, pairs of supermassive black holes should be common in the universe.
I am an astrophysicist and am interested in a wide range of theoretical problems in astrophysics, from the formation of the very first galaxies to the gravitational interactions of black holes, stars and even planets. Black holes are intriguing systems, and supermassive black holes and the dense stellar environments that surround them represent one of the most extreme places in our universe.
Happening on Twitter
Jets Blast Out of Famous Black Hole at 99% the Speed of Light https://t.co/kZX8TNj07n https://t.co/aCOSYMEj9o SPACEdotcom (from NYC) Thu Jan 09 00:35:33 +0000 2020
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