The image on the left shows the core of galaxy NGC 4261 in the Virgo Cluster. Two enormous beams of radiation stream from the “top” and “bottom” of the core, extending thousands of light years into space. The source of these beams is believed to be an accretion disk of gas and dust surrounding a huge black hole at the galaxy’s center. Bright jets run perpendicular to the plane of the disk, like an axle running through a wheel. We are fortunate that the “wheel”—the disk surrounding the black hole—is tilted in just the right direction to allow Earth-bound observers to peer inside this remarkable object.