image: This is a General Relativistic model of the jet powered by a supermassive black hole at the heart of galaxy M87. This simulation shows radio emission as the jet is launched from a black hole with a spin that is one half the maximum rate, and where the jet begins to radiate within 4 Schwarzschild radii of the black hole. The black hole 'shadow' due to the extreme light bending at the event horizon is clear. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the September 27, 2012, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The paper, by Shepherd Doeleman at MIT Haystack Observatory in Westford, Mass., and colleagues was titled, “Jet Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87.” view more
Credit: [Image courtesy of Avery E. Broderick (University of Waterloo/Perimeter Institute)]