In a new paper published in the journal Nature; Also known as M87 Messier 87 galaxy Image of the supermassive black hole at the center, in Chile Atacama submillimeter array (ALMA) It was compiled using 2018 data collected by telescopes around the world.

Astronomers use data from these telescopes to synchronize their signals using a technique called interferometry. Combined to form an Earth-sized virtual telescope.

A great mystery can be solved with this image

Black holes lurking at the center of M87 can shoot huge jets of matter far beyond the edges of their host galaxies. The galaxy in which the black hole is located is approx. 55 million light years away And M87 itself is 6.5 billion times larger than the Sun.

How black holes like this launch these jets is still a mystery, but this new image may help solve that mystery.

in China Ru-Sen Lu of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in his statement, “We know that jets are ejected from the region around black holes, but we still don’t fully understand how this actually happens. To study this directly, we need to observe the source of the jet as close to the black hole as possible.” said.

The image is of the same black hole. Event Horizon Telescope It’s based on an earlier image taken in 2017 and published in 2019. But the new image shows M87’s black hole at a much longer wavelength.

As a result, the new observation shows that the ring-like structure around the black hole is about 50 percent larger than in ETH’s 2017 image. Astronomers believe this is because more of the material falling toward the black hole is visible in the new observations.

The team says they are still in the early stages.