ALMA Image of Cool Disk (IMAGE)

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

ALMA Image of Cool Disk

Caption

ALMA image of the disk of cool hydrogen gas flowing around the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The colors represent the motion of the gas relative to Earth: the red portion is moving away, so the radio waves detected by ALMA are slightly stretched, or shifted, to the "redder" portion of the spectrum; the blue color represents gas moving toward Earth, so the radio waves are slightly scrunched, or shifted, to the "bluer" portion of the spectrum. The crosshair represents the location of the black hole.

Credit

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), E.M. Murchikova; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello

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