The Secret Confessions (2025) Spongkey Episode 44M87 galaxy is monstrous.
It contains several trillionsof stars, compared to our Milky Way's hundreds of billions. And the supermassive black hole at its center is shooting an outstretched beam of energy into space. The Hubble Space Telescope, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, has captured a new image of this energetic cosmic event, which produces a beam of superheated gas 3,000 light-years long (a single light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles).
NASA calls this jet "blowtorch-like," and it seems to be triggering many stars near its trajectory to erupt.
"We don't know what's going on, but it's just a very exciting finding," Alec Lessing of Stanford University, who led the research into the finding, said in an agency statement. "This means there's something missing from our understanding of how black hole jets interact with their surroundings."
SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.Black holes themselves produce no light. But material can rapidly spin around black holes, forming a vibrant "accretion disk" that radiates light. And, sometimes material falling into a black hole can "become rerouted" into two jets, firing in opposite directions, NASA explained.
In the Hubble telescope image below, the colossal elliptical galaxy M87, which is shaped like a giant egg, looks like "a translucent, fuzzy white cotton ball," ESA explained. The jet, as you can see, is the wavy blue beam blasting out from the galactic core, home to the supermassive black hole (it has the mass of 5.4 billionsuns).
A Hubble view of a vibrant jet shooting out from the galaxy M87. Credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / Alec Lessing (Stanford University) / Mike Shara (AMNH) / Acknowledgment: Edward Baltz (Stanford University) // Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
As the jet shoots through the galaxy, astronomers suspect it's triggering a type of stellar explosion called a "nova." These eruptions happen in double-star systems with an aging star — which is bloated and shedding its layers — and a white dwarf star, which is the hot core of a sun-like star that has shed its mass. The swollen star dumps material (hydrogen) on the white dwarf. "When the dwarf has tanked up a mile-deep surface layer of hydrogen that layer explodes like a giant nuclear bomb," the agency explained. And then the gradual process renews.
Compared to the rest of the galaxy, the researchers found twice as many novae happening in the vicinity of that vivid blue jet than elsewhere in M87.
"There's something that the jet is doing to the star systems that wander into the surrounding neighborhood," Lessing said. "Maybe the jet somehow snowplows hydrogen fuel onto the white dwarfs, causing them to erupt more frequently." However, a number of other possibilities could explain it, too.
Astronomers will keep watching this energetic region of space. It's a cosmic mystery, slowly unravelling.
Topics NASA
Best rope light deal: Save 25% on Lepro N1 AI Smart RGB LED Strip Lights
Story Time! by Sadie Stein
Diego, Frida, and Me by Molly Crabapple
See a Paris Review Interview: Live! by Sadie Stein
U.N. confirms the ocean is screwed
Letter from Boston by Michael McGrath
The Fun Part by Sadie Stein
House of Poesy: At the Grolier Poetry Book Shop by Rhoda Feng
SpaceX's Starlink will provide free satellite internet to families in Texas school district
Indian Comics, Professor Nabokov, and Other News by Sadie Stein
DDR4 Memory at 4000 MT/s, Does It Make a Difference?
Diego, Frida, and Me by Molly Crabapple
Meet Your Literary Hero, and Other News by Sadie Stein
Emoji Classics, and Other News by Sadie Stein
Q&A with tendercare founder and CEO Shauna Sweeney
House of Poesy: At the Grolier Poetry Book Shop by Rhoda Feng
Sugar Rush: Letter from Cape Town by Anna Hartford
Chinua Achebe, 1930–2013 by Sadie Stein
The Anatomy of Liberal Melancholy
There and Back Again by Sadie Stein
Finnegans Wake: An Illustrated Panorama by Jason NovakThe Jewish Vicar by Jon CanterOf Bloggers and Book Clubs by Sadie SteinArthurian Legend, Literary Restaurants by Sadie SteinDead Authors at Fashion Week: Part 3 by Katherine BernardThe Haunting; Or, the Ghost of Ty Cobb by Sadie SteinBeat Letters, Literary Ink by Sadie SteinThe Paris Review App by The Paris ReviewArthurian Legend, Literary Restaurants by Sadie SteinAusten Takes Brooklyn by Sadie SteinSong of Roland: An Illustrated Panorama by Jason NovakAn Object Lesson: Beware of Getting Out of Touch by The Paris ReviewCircus and the City: New York, 1793–2010 by John ReedMeeting Joan Didion by Lucy McKeonLetter from a Haunted House: Part 2 by Amie BarrodaleHelpless: On the Poetry of Neil Young by Brian CullmanPolitics, Nerds, Gunpowder by Sadie SteinBeat Letters, Literary Ink by Sadie SteinListen: Sylvia Plath Reads “Daddy” by Sadie SteinCircus and the City: New York, 1793–2010 by John Reed YouTuber asks the internet *not* to Photoshop his pleasant honeymoon photo Pete Davidson and Ariana Grande are reportedly engaged, and everyone's freaking out Meghan and the Queen have first Harry Massive DeFi exploit sees hundreds of millions worth of cryptocurrency stolen Huge lightning bolt spanning 3 U.S. states sets record Meta creates Personal Boundary for Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues avatars Eerie NASA photo shows intense training for dark moon missions Jack Dorsey faces backlash after tweet about Chick When I say I want a goth gf, this is what I meme The royal children got too cute at Queen Elizabeth's birthday People are blaming restaurants and other businesses for COVID Tesla has issued a recall of 817,000 vehicles over a seat belt chime problem GoFundMe pulls donations from anti Macron straight Sellout crowd leads to shutdown of L.A. pride event Netflix's 'All of Us Are Dead’ is a glorious, gory thrill ride How to use low power mode on a Mac, for when you need to conserve battery on your computer Janet Jackson 'has moved on' from her notorious Super Bowl with Justin Timberlake Good news: The raccoon that scaled a building was released back into the wild Spotify apparently deleted over 100 'Joe Rogan Experience' episodes
2.5854s , 10133.8828125 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【Secret Confessions (2025) Spongkey Episode 44】,Creation Information Network