Black Hole Week 2024
![A massive spiral galaxy fills the image. A bright, yellow galactic core glows at the center, surrounded by spiral arms studded with pink stars and dark lanes of dust.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/hubble-ngc4951-1ok-flatcrop-final.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Hubble Views a Galaxy with a Voracious Black Hole
Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in this new Hubble image of NGC 4951.
![The field is filled with stars against a black background. Stars are more dense at image center and taper off toward the edges. Star colors are mainly white and blue-white with a smattering of large, orangish stars.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/hubble-m4-stsci-01h0n3m9t3gxjh4mzcqk6b3ff2.png?w=4096&format=png)
Hubble Hunts for Intermediate-Sized Black Hole
Astronomers using Hubble have evidence for the presence of a rare "intermediate-sized" black hole that may be lurking in the heart of the closest globular star cluster to Earth.
![A bright ball of stars, gas, and dust is the elliptical galaxy M87. Its core is brighter and fades with distance. A bright jet of material extends from the core. Title text: Hubble's Inside the Image: M87 Jet](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/hubble-insideimage-m87-wide-thumb.jpg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
Hubble's Inside the Image: M87 Jet Video
M87, a massive elliptical galaxy, is famous for its prominent jet of high-energy particles and radiation that extends for thousands of light-years from its supermassive black hole.
![Galactic Dust](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Galactic_Dust-jpeg.webp?w=4096&format=png)
Active Galaxy Centaurus A
At just over 11 million light-years away, Centaurus A holds the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. At its center is a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space.
Hubble Science: Monster Black Holes are Everywhere
Hubble found that supermassive black holes lie at the heart of nearly every galaxy.
Before Hubble, astronomers theorized the existence of supermassive black holes, but they had no conclusive evidence.
Learn More![Computer simulation of a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. Center is a black circle. Surrounding the black circle are arcs of red, blue, orange, and white. Further out from the circle are blotches of red, blue, orange, and white representing celestial objects.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/behemoth_blackhole-jpg.webp?w=4096&format=png)
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Miranda Chabot