Added 1 new A* page:
image © EHT Collaboration
^ Image of the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87 in polarized light, which reveals the magnetic field lines generated by the black hole. The area seen in the image is 0.0063 light years across, or 37 trillion miles: about 5 times the size of the orbit of Pluto.
It was released by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, who provide more information and illustrations here, including:
"'The observations suggest that the magnetic fields at the black hole's edge are strong enough to push back on the hot gas and help it resist gravity's pull. Only the gas that slips through the field can spiral inwards to the event horizon,' explains Jason Dexter, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, and coordinator of the EHT Theory Working Group."
Galaxy M87 (Messier 87) is a somewhat distant 54 million light years away from Earth, but at nearly 1 million light years across, it is one of the largest galaxies within imaging distance of Earth. The EHTC measures M87's central black hole at 6.5 trillion solar masses; our own galaxy's central supermassive black hole, known as radio source Sagittarius A*, is a mere 4 million solar masses and much harder to see from Earth due to the intervening gas and dust, and to the current relative inactivity of Sgr A* itself.
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The original 16" x 6.75" watercolor art for today's new A* page is up for auction on eBay. : )
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