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The JWST reveals the M87 jet (pink), extending through a vague purple background, with knots, turns and even a weak opposite flow from the Galaxy black hole. ; | Credit: Jan Röder, Maciek Wielgus et al., Astronomy and astrophysics (2025)
For more than a century, astronomers have been surprised by the amazing material exploding from the heart of the giant ellipse Galaxy M87.
Now James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) provided the clearer infrared view of all time about this space power plant, revealing fresh information about a black hole -powered jet and even noticing its rude twin flow in the opposite direction.
In the new JWST image, the jet airplane looks like a light pink strip that hiding through a vague purple background. The flow of charged particles shoots several thousand light years from the m87 central Black hole; Bright nodes glow for a long time, following where the particles accelerate to almost light speed.
And for the first time in the infrared light bulb, Webb captured a weak opposite of about 6,000 light-years from the black hole-it is very weak and difficult to spot the function as it moves away from our almost light speed, making its light look sober.
M87, located about 55 million light -years from the ground and first noted by Charles Messier in the 18th century, is one of the most studied Galaxies in the sky. His core has a supermassive black hole called M87*, became famous in 2019 As the first one ever humanity ever photographed. This black hole promotes a huge current that is a natural laboratory The universeMost extreme physics.
Using a NIRCAM (NIRCAM) instrument, a team, led by Jan Röder of the Institute of Astrophysics in Spain in Spain, depicted a jet in four infrared groups. To distinguish the jet airplane, researchers thoroughly deprives of star light, dust and background galaxy, leaving the most detailed portrait of infrared infrared leakage, based on a. paper The team announced last week Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Closer to the core of the galaxy, the jet current takes on a spiral shape. The JWST instant photo shows a slow-moving feature called Knot L, along with a brighter region called HST-1, known for its rapid, seemingly superluminal motion. Webb’s clear image shows HST-1 breakdown into two different substances with different emission properties, which is the proof of shock and complex particle dynamics close to the black hole, according to the study.
Further, unlike 6,000 light -years from the black hole, the counterpoor jump looks like two strands connected to public internet access and forms a weak C -shaped that corresponds to radio observations, researchers note in the study.
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The new data confirms that the current shines through the radiation of the synchrotron, the light emitted by the charged particles, spiral through magnetic fields. By measuring the subtle differences in the color of the infrared bands, the team followed how the particles accelerate, cool and twist along the jet, according to the study.
Nozzles like M87 are natural extreme physics laboratories nourished Supermassive black holes And it can speed up particles into energy, much over everything that has been achieved on Earth. Their understanding helps astronomers to check how black holes affect their master’s galaxies, regulating the formation of stars and spreading material and energy far into the intergalactic space.