image: This is a simulated image of a jet launched from a spinning black hole surrounded by a disk of accreting material. The black hole is spinning at half the maximum rate, and its mass is that of the black hole at the center of the M87 elliptical galaxy. The central black hole 'shadow' due to extreme light bending is apparent in this simulation. 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)]