Object for this post was chosen by @jasonrussell, he also encouraged me to start this series of posts while talking about all the beautiful things in the space and his photo of total eclipse of the Sun. Thank you Jason! I hope you will enjoy this one. :)
On this photo we can see a supergiant elliptical galaxy Virgo A, it is also known as M87 and NGC 4486. This monstrous galaxy is located 54 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo and has diameter of 120000 light-years. It contains very large number of globular clusters, about 15000, compared to the 150-200 orbiting the Milky Way. As a true elliptical galaxy, M87 has almost no evidence of star formation, and it is likely formed from a recent merger between two other spiral galaxies.
The most fascinating thing in this galaxy is the jet, which we are able to see in visible wavelengths, but also in X-ray and radio domain. This jet originates at the core of the galaxay, from the central supermassive black hole and extends outward to about 5000 light years. As material from the center of the galaxy accretes (in other words - fall) onto the black hole, the energy released produces a stream of subatomic particles that are accelerated to velocities near the speed of light.
If you have any questions/comments/advices/propositions they are all welcome!
Cheers!
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Way freekin cool!
this is very interesting bud.I am just curious to know what happens when two galaxies merge.I remember reading how when two black-holes merged they emitted energy which was able to prove the existence of gravitational waves.Anything cool happen when galaxies merge.
They will form a larger galaxy. For example Milky way and Andromeda galaxy are on a colliding course (previous post). Usually big spiral galaxies have supermassive black holes at their center. Most of the stars will interact, but there won't be star collision since the concentration is so low. Galaxies will go into the spiraling dance - two black holes will be on a merger course - disturbing the material and reorganizing it into elliptical galaxy. :) there are few simulations about it - very nice to watch. )
sharing this to my son's bookmark. Thanks.
Thank you for stopping by, and letting me know that this work is not in vain, and it reaches interested people and kids audience.
Cheers!
To me as a people with really low or zero knowledge of space, the sentence that brought my attention was, that these jets are traveling AWAY from the black hole. How cool is that?! They know something we don't =)
Yep very cool! :) Jets are produced in a very complex phenomena when matter falls onto black hole some of it can escape with relativistic speed in the very narrow direction (jets) while the rest of it is spiraling downwards the black abyss. :)
I've been thinking about universe so much and it's so fascinating I'm not sure is it even real. I can't even imagine how is it supposed to be unlimited. Scary..
Actually, leading theory of today says: it is infinite and bounded, try to imagine that haha :D
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