                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2019 April 27
                                      [2]
                   The Galaxy, the Jet, and the Black Hole
      Image Credit: NASA [3] , JPL-Caltech [4] , Event Horizon Telescope
                              Collaboration [5]

Explanation: Bright elliptical galaxy [6] Messier 87 (M87) is home to the
supermassive black hole captured by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope [7]
in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the Virgo galaxy cluster
about 55 million light-years away, M87 is the large galaxy rendered in blue
hues in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope [8] . Though M87
appears mostly featureless and cloud-like, the Spitzer image does record
details of relativistic jets blasting from the galaxy's central region. Shown
in the inset at top right, the jets themselves span thousands of light-years.
The brighter jet [9]  seen on the right is approaching and close to our line
of sight. Opposite, the shock created by the otherwise unseen receding jet
lights up a fainter arc of material. Inset at bottom right, the historic black
hole image [10]  is shown in context, at the center of giant galaxy and
relativistic jets. Completely unresolved in the Spitzer image, the
supermassive black hole surrounded by infalling material is the source of the
enormous energy driving the relativistic jets from the center of active galaxy
M87 [11] .

                      Tomorrow's picture: All of Mercury

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [23] (MTU [24] ) & Jerry Bonnell [25]
                                  (UMCP [26] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [27] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [28]
              A service of: ASD [29]  at NASA [30]  / GSFC [31]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [32]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1904/pia23122c-16.jpg
  [3] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [4] http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
  [5] https://eventhorizontelescope.org/organization
  [6] ap100520.html
  [7] https://eventhorizontelescope.org/blog
  [8] https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA23122
  [9] ap041211.html
  [10] ap190411.html
  [11] http://hubblesite.org/image/968/news_release/2000-20
  [12] ap190426.html
  [13] archivepix.html
  [14] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [15] lib/aptree.html
  [16] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [17] calendar/allyears.html
  [18] /apod.rss
  [19] lib/edlinks.html
  [20] lib/about_apod.html
  [21] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190427
  [22] ap190428.html
  [23] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [25] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [26] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [27] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [28] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [29] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [31] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [32] http://www.mtu.edu/
