Fifty-five million light years from Earth there is a massive elliptical galaxy known as Messier 87‚ or M87 for short. It was cataloged by Charles Messier in the 1700s‚ along with 102 other fuzzy objects in the sky that were definitely not comets. It was confirmed to be a galaxy in the early 1900s‚ and by the mid-twentieth century‚ it was known to be a powerful radio source. But these days it is most widely known for the supermassive black hole deep in its core. Called M87*‚ it is the first black hole directly observed by astronomers. The first image of M87* was released in 2019‚ and was based on observations taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017. Now a new image based on 2018 data has been released. The similarities and differences between the two images tell us a great deal about M87* and black holes in general. Although the Event Horizon Telescope has a single name‚ it is actually a collaboration of radio telescopes across the world. The observations of each observatory are combined through a process of interferometry to create an Earth-sized virtual telescope. Although the name stays the same‚ the EHT has improved over time with the addition of new equipment and even new telescopes. For example‚ the 2018 data included the Greenland Telescope (GLT)‚ which did not participate in the 2017 run. Because of this change between different data runs‚ each run is effectively a new observation with a new telescope. Since the 2017 and 2018 data sets are theoretically uncorrelated‚ astronomers can compare the two to see which features of the black hole have remained the same‚ and which have changed. A comparison of M87* as seen in 2017 and 2018. Credit: The EHT Collaboration One major similarity is that the size of the central shadow is the same for both images. This shadow is caused by background light from the center of M87 being focused toward us by the black hole. Since the size of the shadow depends on the size of the black hole’s event horizon‚ this confirms that the original estimation of the black hole’s size and mass was correct and that it hasn’t changed over time. This is important because there was some criticism that the original image relied too heavily on simulations to pull out its features from the data. We can now verify that the EHT imaging software is correct. We really can observe black holes directly. One interesting difference easily seen in the images is that the bright region of the ring has shifted counterclockwise by about 30 degrees. This is due to the accretion disk of the black hole. As the disk swirls around the black hole‚ its orientation wobbles‚ the bright spot of the ring to shift. Astronomers predicted this effect‚ now confirmed by the data. The amount of shift over the course of a year is consistent with the predicted orientation of the black hole’s rotation‚ which should have its rotational axis aligned along the powerful jet that streams away from M87. Taken together‚ these initial results confirm both the mass and rotation of M87*‚ which are its two fundamental quantities. Further analysis of the data will help astronomers understand how magnetic fields and turbulent plasma flows within the accretion disk interact. And we are still in the early stages of observing black holes. The planned next-generation EHT (ngEHT) program will add additional telescopes and detectors capable of higher-resolution images at a greater range of frequencies. Within the next decade‚ we may even have videos showing how M87* evolves over time. [^1]: The EHT Collaboration. “The persistent shadow of the supermassive black hole of M 87.” Astronomy &; Astrophysics 681 (2024): A79. The post M87*'s Event Horizon Image. One Year Later appeared first on Universe Today.

Talk to anyone about galaxies and it often conjurs up images of spiral or elliptical galaxie. Thanks to a survey by the James Webb Space Telescope it seems the early Universe was full of galaxies of different shapes. In the first 6 billion years up to 80% of the galaxies were flat‚ surfboard like. But that’s not it‚ there were others like pool noodles too‚ yet why they looked so different back then is a mystery. Galaxies were  first identified back in the 17th Century by French astronomer Charles Messier. He was a comet hunter who identified a number of fuzzy objects which he realised were not comets. He catalogued them in his famous catalogue of deep sky objects but it wasn’t until Edwin Hubble measure the distances to some of them in the 1920’s that they were recognised as galaxies.  The bluish-white spiral galaxy NGC 1376 hangs delicately in the cold vacuum of space. Credit: NASA‚ ESA‚ and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Analysing images from the JWST survey known as the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey‚ the team studied galaxies from a time when the universe was between 600 million and 6 billion years old. To their surprise they did not see the usual cosmic zoo of galaxies like spiral‚ elliptical and irregular galaxies. Instead they found that between 50 and 80% of the galaxies seem to be glattened in two dimensions. Illustration of James Webb Space Telescope Instead‚ the team found galaxies shaped like surfboards‚ pool noodles‚ frisbees and volleyballs. Among these new types‚ the surfboard shape was most common with the least common being the volleyball‚ sphere shaped galaxies. Interestingly too they foudn that the frisbee and noodle shaped galaxies became more common in the later era around 6 billion years.  The mass of the early galaxies seemed to be far less than the mass of galaxies we see today. It seems they had far less time to grow when compared to today’s galaxies which are far more massive. The team would have not been able to complete their work without the incredible sensitivity and resolution of the JWST. The paper was authored by Viraj Pandya‚ a NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University.  They went further to explore what category our own Milky Way galaxy would fall into if we could hop in a time machine and wind back time. They concluded it was likely to have been surfboard shaped galaxy‚ not too dissimilar to the spiral structure familiar to us today. We have learned lots about galaxies over the years and images from Hubble has most certainly helped.  The latest set of images from JWST have shown us that we still have lots to learn and as we delve deeper and deeper into space and further and further back into time we are only just starting to scratch the surface.  Source : Webb Shows Many Early Galaxies Looked Like Pool Noodles‚ Surfboards The post Early Galaxies Looked Nothing Like What We See Today appeared first on Universe Today.

A light in a dark place.

'I want the second most powerful person in the world – who happens to be a woman – [to] tell me, be very, very afraid,' one co-host ridiculously claimed.

President Biden is cruising to the Democratic nomination. Former President Donald J. Trump could begin to wrap up his party’s nod within days. America’s response: This can’t be real. Even as both men stroll toward likely summer coronations and a fall rematch‚ an undercurrent of disbelief is coursing through the country. Many Republicans view Mr. Biden as so politically and physically weak that they think his party will replace him. Many Democrats can’t fathom that Mr. Trump...

Americans are rapidly becoming much more upbeat about the economy. Consumer sentiment leapt 13% in the first half of January from December‚ the University of Michigan said Friday. That came on the heels of a sharp rise in December‚ causing the index to surge a combined 29% from November‚ the biggest two-month increase since 1991. The pickup in sentiment was broad-based‚ spanning consumers of different age‚ income‚ education and geography. The recovery in sentiment “is likely to provide...

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) kicked Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) out of a House committee hearing about relations between the United States and Cuba‚ accusing the California Democrat of spreading “communist propaganda.” On Thursday‚ Lee attended a hearing of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee‚ which she is not a member of‚ and tried to speak on restoring ties between the two countries. Salazar‚ a former journalist‚ has pushed...

Surviving through a stroke of luck. The post The card game that saved Kirk Hammett’s life first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

A cornerstone of the genre. The post The metal album Ozzy Osbourne said will “stand the test of time” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

“They’re just fucking rubbish. They don’t play with any passion.” The post The classic rock band Damon Albarn hates: “They are definitely contributing to the bad music imprint” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.