Super-massive black hole inflates giant bubble

Astronomers have produced one of the best images ever of such a bubble, using LOFAR to detect frequencies from 20 to 160 MHz. "The result is of great importance", says Francesco de Gasperin, lead author of the study that will be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "It shows the enormous potential of LOFAR, and provides compelling evidence of the close ties between black hole, host galaxy, and their surroundings."

The image was made during the test-phase of LOFAR, and targeted the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, at the centre of a galaxy cluster in the constellation of Virgo. This galaxy is 2000 times more massive than our Milky Way and hosts in its centre one of the most massive black holes discovered so far, with a mass six billion times that of our Sun. Every few minutes this black hole swallows an amount of matter similar to that of the whole Earth, converting part of it into radiation and a larger part into powerful jets of ultra-fast particles, which are responsible for the observed radio emission.

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http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/mpa/institute/news_archives/news1210_bbb/news1210_bbb-en.html （SY）