Signature of a supermassive black hole found in the center of galaxy M84
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The colorful "zigzag" on the right is the signature of a supermassive black hole in the center of galaxy M84, located in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, 50 million light-years from Earth. The image on the left, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary and Camera 2 shows the core of the galaxy where the suspected black hole dwells. Astronomers mapped the motions of gas in the grip of the black hole's powerful gravitational pull by aligning the STIS's spectroscopic slit across the nucleus in a single exposure. If no black hole were present, the line would be nearly vertical across the scan. STIS measures a velocity of 880,000 miles per hour (400 kilometers per second) within 26 light-years of the galaxy's center, where the black hole dwells. This motion allowed astronomers to calculate that the black hole contains at least 300 million solar masses. |