Giant Black Holes Keep Powerful Radio Jets Close

This artist's illustration depicts scientists' new understanding of the giant black hole at the core of galaxy M87. 

The bright radio 'core' of the jet base is located very close to the central black hole no larger than about 10 times the size of the event horizon.

CREDIT: NAOJ

The powerful jets of radio waves that can explode from monster black holes at the center of galaxies may erupt from much closer to these giants than previously thought, scientists say.

Although black holes entrap anything that falls onto them, a vast amount of energy can radiate outward from matter rushing into the black holes. In this way, radio telescopes can spot black holes by the radio jets they can give off. But the way these radio jets form is uncertain.

To uncover their roots, researchers investigated a nearby source of them, the black hole at the heart of galaxy M87, a monster about 23.5 billion miles (37.8 billion kilometers) wide and 6 billion times the mass of the sun, study lead author Kazuhiro Hada, an astronomer at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Tokyo stated.