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Bill Junor of the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, along with John Biretta and Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute, in Baltimore, MD, now have shown that M87's jet is formed within a few tenths of a light-year of the galaxy's core, presumed to be a black hole three billion times more massive than the sun. In the formation region, the jet is seen opening widely, at an angle of about 60 degrees, nearest the black hole, but is squeezed down to only 6 degrees a few light-years away.
"The 60-degree angle of the inner part of M87's jet is the widest such angle yet seen in any jet in the universe," said Junor. "We found this by being able to see the jet to within a few hundredths of a light-year of the galaxy's core -- an unprecedented level of detail."
At the center of M87, material being drawn inward by the strong gravitation of the black hole is formed into a rapidly-spinning flat disk, called an accretion disk. The subatomic particles are thought to be pushed outward from the poles of this disk. The scientists believe that magnetic fields in the disk are twisted tightly as the disk spins and then channel the electrically-charged particles into a pair of narrow jets.
"Our new image of M87 supports this idea of magnetic fields doing the work of forming the stream of particles into a narrow jet," said Biretta.
"We can see such jets very far away, even at distances of billions of light-years," said Junor. "They are fascinating to us because they show how nature is somehow using the accretion disk and the jet to tap into the enormous gravitational energy of a black hole and use that energy to 'light up' the outer regions of the galaxy."
We have never thought these jets are created fully-formed," said Biretta. "They need some space in which to reach the stable configuration we see at larger scales. We now have seen that space for the first time, and this will help show which theoretical models might be right. " He added that "magnetic fields are almost certainly involved," and said that future radio-telescope observations will attempt to find evidence of the magnetic fields.