NASA image - super massive black hole - check it out.

[JohnWxy]

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1846.html


In a single exposure, astronomers were able to confirm the existence of a supermassive black hole in the center of galaxy M84. They did this by using the Hubble Space Telescope's more powerful spectrograph to map the rapid rotation of gas at the galaxy's center. The colorful zigzag provides the evidence. If no black hole were present, the line would be nearly vertical. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph measured a velocity of 880,000 mph within 26 light-years of the galaxy's center. This measurement allowed astronomers to calculate that the black hole contains at least 300 million solar masses. M84 is located in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, 50 million light-years from Earth, and a nearby neighbor to the more massive M87 galaxy, which also contains an extremely massive black hole.

[Peace Patriot]

1. Can you explain this image better than the caption?

For one thing, the caption (last line) says, "The image on the left shows the galaxy's center in visible light. " Where is "the image on the left"? I don't know what they are referring to.

What portion of the galaxy are we looking at in the image? Close-up of black hole (looking into the center of the galaxy)? A zoom-out on galaxy (with the colorful zig-zag occurring above and below the plane of the galaxy)? I have no sense of perspective when looking at the image. Where ARE these zigs and zags of color in relation to the whole galaxy?

Thanks for posting this! Very amazing thing, looking at a pix of a black hole! (But...where is it?)

[BadgerKid]

6. I figure the image is 600 ly across & black hole disc is tilted.

> For one thing, the caption (last line) says, "The image on the left shows the galaxy's center
in visible light. " Where is "the image on the left"? I don't know what they are referring to.


The device detects ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. Caption wording isn't as clear as it could be. There probably is or was some other page layout where the image appears on the left, I suppose.



> What portion of the galaxy are we looking at in the image? Close-up of black hole (looking into the center of the galaxy)? A zoom-out on galaxy (with the colorful zig-zag occurring above and below the plane of the galaxy)? I have no sense of perspective when looking at the image. Where ARE these zigs and zags of color in relation to the whole galaxy?

Hubble is looking at an oblong slice centered on the galaxy's center. The STIS measures the Doppler effect in visible light, so blue area means motion toward us; red, away. That puts the galatic center in between the major blue and red peaks. Our line of sight gives us a face-on view of M84, so this image is suggesting is that the accretion disc of the black hole is tilted out-of-plane with respect to M84's. Otherwise, if the black hole's disc were also face-on to us, we wouldn't get a Doppler effect.


I think you're asking about dimensions. The folk at NASA have been good to post some data. The CCD pixel scale is 0.05071 arcseconds. For small arcs, distance times arclength gives you size of object viewed, so (0.05071 arcsec)*(50 M ly) = ~12.3 ly per pixel. Some sources say the distance may be 60 M ly, so let's split the difference, call it 55 M ly, and so each pixel is ~13.5 ly across. The image is about 44 pixels high, so the total image represents almost 600 light-years across.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Thanks so much for this info, Badgerkid! Very helpful! nt

[JohnWxy]

9. Sorry, I didnt' see that you asked a question. this photo was actually originally released

May 12, 1997.

see: http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/10th/photos/slide33.shtml this shows the visible light view of M84 to the left. NOte that M84 is an elliptical galaxy. It is not a spiral galaxy like ours or the Andromeda (thought to look like the Milky Way). So, talking about the "plane" of the galaxy could be misleading (although in a few 100 million years or so it could be that M84 might by then show organization into a spiral form).

The black hole is at the center of the galaxy.

Here is another view of M84...
...........................

here is the web-page with explanation of the image: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/photos08-171.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/28413/our-universe/galaxies/index.htm

Elliptical galaxies range in shapes from a flattened cigar shape to a spherical shape. They also range in sixe from dwarfs to giants. You will usually find elliptical galaxies near the center of galaxy clusters. A famous eliptical galaxy is the Sombrero Galaxy. Because of it’s odd shape some scientists believe that there is a massive black hole at the core.

the Sombrero Galaxy.....
...........................


sorry for the slow response. I don't always remember to check 'myDU' for responses/questions.

[Ian David]

2. God lives there, and he needs a starship. n/t

[originalpckelly]

4. Excuse me, but what does God need with a starship?

:P

[intheflow]

3. I'm just seeing a bunch of pretty rainbow-colored pixels.

And like Peace Patriot, the caption reads as near gibberish to me. Do I have to adjust my tv set? :shrug:

[Orsino]

7. The Doppler Effect is in effect!

The rapid revolution of matter around the black hole gives away its mass, and the blue-shifted light from the spiraling matter shows how fast it's moving toward us. The red-shifted light on the other side is also characteristic of motion away from us. If you've ever watched modern Doppler radar images of storm systems (especially those that might spawn tornadoes), this is the same effect. In the NASA image, though, we are measuring the shift of light emitted in our direction, rather than bouncing radar signals off the object.

[skoalyman]

5. its full of pixels, so that's were all the pixels go to end there life

:hi: