APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
EHT Resolves Central Jet from Black Hole in Cen A
Explanation: How do supermassive black holes create powerful jets? To help find out, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) imaged the center of the nearby active galaxy Centaurus A . The cascade of featured inset images shows Cen A from it largest, taking up more sky than many moons, to its now finest, taking up only as much sky as an golf ball on the moon . The new image shows what may look like two jets -- but is actually two sides of a single jet . This newly discovered jet-edge brightening does not solve the jet-creation mystery , but does imply that the particle outflow is confined by a strong pressure -- possibly involving a magnetic field . The EHT is a coordination of radio telescopes from around the Earth -- from the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in Hawaii USA, to ALMA in Chile , to NOEMA in France , and more . The EHT will continue to observe massive, nearby black holes and their energetic surroundings.
| Date | August 4, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Image Credit: Radboud University; CSIRO/ATNF/I.Feain et al., R.Morganti et al., N.Junkes et al.; ESO/WFI; MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A. Weiss et al.; NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Kraft et al.; TANAMI/C. Mueller et al.; EHT/M. Janssen et al. |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |