Researchers pinpoint source of black hole’s 3,000-light-year-long jet stream using enhanced telescope network

Researchers pinpoint source of black hole’s 3,000-light-year-long jet stream using enhanced telescope network

The M87 black hole, the first ever imaged in 2019, is 6.5 billion times larger than the sun and located 55 million light years from Earth

Scientists have traced a 3,000-light-year-long cosmic jet streaming out from the first black hole ever imaged to its source point with the help of "significantly enhanced coverage" from the global Event Horizon Telescope, a new study published this week revealed. (Hubble Telescope/NASA)

A first image of the M87 black hole taken by the Event Horizon Telescope and revealed in 2019. (National Science Foundation via Getty Images)

The elliptical galaxy M87 is the home of several trillion stars, a supermassive black hole and a family of roughly 15,000 globular star clusters. (NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: P. Cote, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, and E. Baltz, Stanford University)