M87 Black Hole's Influence on Mysterious Filaments Revealed

Astronomers have captured the most detailed views of the mysterious filaments surrounding the galaxy M87. The central black hole plays a role in the evolution of these structures. New Delhi: An international team of astronomers have captured the most detailed and complete view of mysterious filaments surrounding the giant galaxy M87. Located at a distance of about 55 million lightyears, M87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy, best known for the extremely active supermassive black hole that occupies its core. The new observations conducted by ground-based telescopes reveals that the galaxy is surrounded by long, thread-like structures that move, evolve and interact with the galactic environment, as well as activity of the central supermassive black hole. This supermassive black hole contains 6.5 billion solar masses, and has been imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope, that revealed its shadow for the first time. M87 is a at the centre of the Virgo galaxy cluster, a gigantic system containing thousands of galaxies. These galaxies are immersed in a hot, diffuse intracluster gas that reaches tens of millions of degrees. Like many central galaxies, M87 is threaded by a complex network of thin filaments, stretching great distances from its centre. Despite decades of study, the origin of these filaments are unknown, and how they can survive in the harsh environment of a galaxy cluster is also unknown. M87 is the closest known galaxy to host such filamentary structures. Filaments linked to present and past activity