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Super-massive black hole at heart of galaxy Messier 87
Fifty-five million light-years from Earth, at the heart of galaxy Messier 87, lies a monster black hole that's enshrouded itself in a swirling disk of super-hot energy and matter and radiates unimaginably powerful jets above and below. Weighing 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, it distorts spacetime like few objects in the universe. It has enshrouded itself in a swirling disk of super-hot energy and matter and radiates unimaginably powerful jets above and below.
Learn more in the NSF News Release Astronomers capture first image of a black hole. (Date of image: 2019; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Jan. 2, 2020)
Credit: Nicolle R. Fuller/National Science Foundation
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