Astronomers have identified the origin of the enormous plasma jet emerging from the supermassive black hole at the heart of galaxy M87. Using updated data from the Event Horizon Telescope, scientists have now directly connected the black hole’s shadow to the base of a jet that stretches nearly 3,000 light-years into space.
M87 is 55 million light-years away from Earth and made history in 2019 as the first black hole to be photographed. Interestingly, the black hole weighs 6.5 billion suns.
For a long time, scientists were able to see the bright ring and the distant jet of the black hole, but the link between the two was unclear.
New research using Event Horizon Telescope data obtained in 2021 has filled in the gaps to complete the picture. The data set has also included data with mid-range baselines, enabling researchers to observe both the compact ring and the jet structure simultaneously.
Additional radio emission has also been detected, apart from what the ring structure formed by the black hole emits. The additional emission comes from a compact object located only 0.09 light-years from the black hole, on one end of the jet structure.
Lead Researcher Saurabh said that the identification of the jet's origin provides significant information regarding the flow of energy through vast distances within black holes. The images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that the jet of the M87 galaxy reaches up to 3,000 light-years from the centre of the galaxy.