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Time - Man of the Year
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1992-09-22
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915b
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26 lines
THE WEEK, Page 35HEALTH & SCIENCEX Marks the Spot
A bizarre cosmic cross may be the imprint of a giant black hole
Astronomers have long suspected that the whirlpool galaxy,
20 million light-years away, harbors in its core a black hole, a
superdense knot of matter whose gravity is so powerful that even
light can't escape. Now a photograph taken by the Hubble Space
Telescope has convinced them. The picture, released last week,
reveals a giant X at the galaxy's center. The scientists think
one arm of the X is a massive, doughnut-shaped cloud of dust
swirling around the hole. The doughnut is seen edge on, hiding
the black hole from view, but two cone-shaped beams of light
emitted by hot gas closer in can be seen escaping out the sides.
As for the second arm, no one knows what it is.