"Quiet" X-rays from Supermassive Black Hole
Pictured in blue (below) is the X-ray light coming from the central supermassive black hole in the core of the galaxy M87. The X-ray light peaks at the position of the central black hole. This is indicated with arrows in the top panel. A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy has previously revealed a disk of rapidly rotating, hot gas with a central black hole at its hub.
The black hole at the center of M87 weighs more than a billion Suns, yet it is concentrated into a region no larger than our Solar System. M87 is located 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, and it is one of the six giant elliptical galaxies for which a unique type of very energetic X-ray light has been detected. The luminosity, though, is much lower than expected from standard black hole theory. A brilliant jet of high-speed electrons that emits from the nucleus (diagonal feature across upper image) is believed to be produced by the black hole "engine." The brightest spot in this jet is also emitting X-ray light.
Credit: optical (upper) image -- Space Telescope Science Institute and NASA; blue X-ray chart and overall layout -- Di Matteo, et al.
