A black hole at the heart of the Virgo Cluster
M87 is located in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, a group of gravitationally bound galaxies among the largest in the observable universe . With a mass estimated at several billion times that of the Sun, the black hole at the center of M87 plays a crucial role in the dynamics of its galaxy. In 2019, using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), scientists managed to capture an image of the event horizon of this object. This historic image, often compared to a ring of light surrounding a shadow, opened a new era in the study of black holes.
However, M87 did not stop there. In April 2018, a year before the publication of this first image, a spectacular gamma ray flare was detected. This observation, reported by the EHT Multi-Wavelength Working Group in a recent study, offers a new window on the extreme phenomena taking place around black holes.
What is -what is a gamma ray flare?
Gamma rays are the most powerful forms of energy in the universe, photons whose energy far exceeds that of visible light. They are often produced in extreme environments, such as supernova explosions, neutron star collisions or, as in this case, in the relativistic jets of supermassive black holes.
In the case of M87 , the gamma flare detected in 2018 is the first observed in more than ten years. This phenomenon lasted about three days, which is relatively brief but very intense. The region causing this eruption is incredibly small: it…Read more on Science and Life< meta name="syndication-source" content="https://www.wouldsayso.com/ciel-et-espace/trou-noir-m87-une-explosion-gamma-inedite-fascine-les-chercheurs-186765.html" />< meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow" />
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