NASA telescopes reveal a supermassive black hole 230 million light years away

Black holes are one of the most entrancing celestial phenomena. These fallen stars challenge our notions of space and time, and have been popularized in science fiction as possible portals to parallel realities.

NASA describes a black hole as “an astronomical object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it.” The event horizon of a black hole is what astronomers consider the object’s “surface,” and it " defines the boundary where the velocity needed to escape exceeds the speed of light, which is the speed limit of the cosmos," explains the space agency. In other words, if you were being sucked into a black hole, you would need to be able to move faster than the speed of light to escape.

Take a look for yourself

Earlier this month, NASA announced that through the Hubble telescope and the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers had captured photos of a “supermassive blackhole” located more than 230 million light-years from Earth.

For the researchers at NASA who worked on putting together this composite image, they see its importance in the “clues” it provides, as to “how black holes affect their surrounding environment.”

“Gas swirling near the black hole results in bubbles of material blowing into the galaxy cluster, and long gaseous filaments stretch out beyond the galaxy into the X-ray-emitting gas that fills the cluster,” explain the NASA team.

These images are made possible thanks to the technological innovations made at NASA, which also include the James Webb Space Telescope, which was able to capture these images in 2022.

For NASA, the James Webb Space Telescope is bringing to humans on Earth “every phase of cosmic history.” Described as “the world’s premier space observatory,” the James Webb “is solving mysteries in our solar system.“ James Webb is considered an international program that brings together NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

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