Black Hole Snapshot

  • Released Thursday, June 28, 2012
View full credits

Although it seems improbable to use radio frequencies to see anything—let alone the high-speed particle jets of a supermassive black hole—astronomers have done just that. Using a global array of radio telescopes, a team including NASA-funded scientists has created a fine-resolution radio image that reveals the innermost jets at the center of galaxy Centaurus A, 12 million light-years from Earth. The detail in the image is equivalent to spotting a quarter from 5,000 miles away. As gases fall into the black hole at Centaurus A's core, the material gets accelerated outward, creating huge plumes of matter in a process not fully understood. Watch the video to see the vast size of the galaxy's plumes compared to the relative smallness of the black-hole-powered jet that created them.

Telescopes look deep into a galaxy to snap a detailed view of a black hole's jets.

Telescopes look deep into a galaxy to snap a detailed view of a black hole's jets.

A journey deep into the galaxy shows material emanating from the black hole, which is 55 million times more massive than the sun.

Nine radio telescopes, acting like a single telescope 6,200 miles across, worked in concert to capture this image of the inner jets (right).

Nine radio telescopes, acting like a single telescope 6,200 miles across, worked in concert to capture this image of the inner jets (right).

In visible light, the giant elliptical galaxy shows no sign of its active, supermassive black hole.

In visible light, the giant elliptical galaxy shows no sign of its active, supermassive black hole.

Combining radio and optical wavelengths reveals huge plumes extending hundreds of thousands of light-years beyond the inner jets.

Combining radio and optical wavelengths reveals huge plumes extending hundreds of thousands of light-years beyond the inner jets.

For More Information

See NASA.gov

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Radio telescope image of jets courtesy of NASA/TANAMI/Müller et al.
Visible light image courtesy of Capella Observatory
Optical/radio/visible image courtesy of Capella Observatory with radio data from Ilana Feain, Tim Cornwell, and Ron Ekers (CSIRO/ATNF), R. Morganti (ASTRON) and N. Junkes (MPIfR)

This page was originally published on Thursday, June 28, 2012.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:52 PM EDT.