|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Hubble Telescope Captures Cosmic Searchlight
By Maia Weinstock
Staff Writer
posted: 07:08 am ET
06 July 2000
|
Hubble Captures Cosmic Searchlight Taking the form of a huge flashlight beam in space, a jet of electrons and protons traveling near the speed of light can be seen in NASA's most recent Hubble Space Telescope image, released this week by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Such gigantic particle jets are thought to form in galaxies where massive black holes exist. The beam seen in Hubble's latest image is gushing outward from the center of the galaxy M87, a well-studied galaxy that lies some 50 million light-years away from Earth, and which is believed to contain a black hole at its center. 
Hubble captured this image of a powerful particle jet spouting from the center of a black hole. The light in the upper left is the host galaxy M87.
The jet in M87 is not new to astronomers. As far back as 1918, astronomer H.D. Curtis noticed the jet, describing it as a "curious straight ray" emanating from the galaxy. But today, scientists have not only been witness to high-resolution images of the jet, they've been able to deduce its origin and some of its properties. The light in Hubble's newest image is produced by a process called "synchrotron radiation." In this process, energy radiates from charged particles that are moving in a curved orbit (typically around a magnetic field). This synchrotron-type energy becomes concentrated and twisted by regional magnetic fields, then flies outward into space in the form of a light "beam." Scientists are studying the gas jet in M87 because they are curious to learn about the formation of black holes and their associated gas jets. They currently believe that such jets form primarily in the presence of black holes that chow down on large amounts of stars, gas and dust.
|
|
|
|
|
