Chandra Release - September 26, 2001

Visual Description: M87 Jet

This montage of the giant elliptical galaxy M87’s core jet is shown in three kinds of light (X-ray at the top, radio in the bottom left, and optical in the bottom right). In each of the images, there are a series of bright dots, which resemble small jelly beans in various sizes.  In each panel, the structure as a whole looks almost like a caterpillar, this represents the jet emanating from the supermassive black hole.  The X-ray from the Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the jet reveals an irregular, knotty structure similar to that detected by radio telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope. At the extreme left of the image, the bright galactic nucleus harboring the supermassive black hole shines. The jet is thought to be produced by strong electromagnetic forces created by matter swirling toward the supermassive black hole.