Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  IC 3388  ·  IC 3443  ·  IC 3457  ·  IC 3459  ·  IC 3475  ·  IC 3489  ·  IC 794  ·  M 87  ·  NGC 4476  ·  NGC 4478  ·  NGC 4486  ·  Virgo Galaxy
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M87 and its relativistic jet, Massimo Di Fusco
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M87 and its relativistic jet

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M87 and its relativistic jet, Massimo Di Fusco
Powered byPixInsight

M87 and its relativistic jet

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Description

Virgo A (also known as M87, or NGC 4486) is a giant elliptical galaxy visible in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781 and dominates the Virgo Cluster, being one of the largest known galaxies.
Its relative proximity to the Earth makes it one of the privileged targets for astronomical research, in particular for the study of the highly energetic phenomena at work in its core, which hosts the supermassive black hole whose image was published on April 10 2019.
The main phenomenon caused by the black hole at the center of M87, which can also be observed with amateur equipment, is the relativistic jet that extends for at least 5000 light years from its core made up of matter ejected from the galaxy. To better highlight this phenomenon, I added two enlarged crops of M87 in the lower corners of my image, one of the real color image (left) and the other of the inverted luminance (right).

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