Chandra Release - April 14, 2021

Visual Description: M87 Black Hole

This release features a video that takes us through visual representations of data collected by 19 of the world's most powerful telescopes. The telescopes, which together collect light from across the spectrum, were part of a coordinated observation. At various times between late March and early May of 2017, the telescopes were all used to observe the famous supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, about 55 million light-years from Earth.

The video slowly zooms out through images representing data from the different types of telescopes. As we zoom out, more of the black hole enters the frame. We start with an image that resembles a glowing orange donut, brighter on the bottom than on top, floating in the black of space. Titles indicate that this represents Radio data from the Event Horizon Telescope. The faint outline of a square appears over top of the donut shape. Onscreen text indicates that each side of this square represents a distance of 0.01 light-years. 

As the video zooms out, the donut becomes a dot inside a bright vertical oval with a white core and yellow and orange outer rings. We zoom out further, and the oval and its pale orange companion shapes recede into the distance, replaced by a brilliant white dome shape nearing 1 light-year across. A mottled white and orange pattern streaks from the dome toward our upper right, like a tail. This is a jet of particles traveling at the speed of light, powered by the black hole. A zigzagging pattern inside the jet becomes apparent when it nears 10 light-years in length. When we zoom out further such that the white dome shape and the bright orange jet is approximately 100 light-years long, it presents as a solid streak.

When we zoom out further, the black hole becomes a brilliant white egg-shape nearing 1,000 light-years in length. At this point, the video splits into three vertical panels. On our left are representations from radio telescopes, presented in oranges and whites against a black background. On our right are representations of X-ray data, presented as purple and white shapes on a black background. And in the middle are visible light images which feature white shapes on a sky blue background. In all three representations, the jet continues to extend toward our upper right.

A representation of the black hole's gamma ray emissions then eclipses the three vertical panels. It now resembles a glowing white ball surrounded by an irregular neon purple ring, which measures almost 1,000,000 light-years across. At this point, the video stops zooming out, and pauses on this image from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. In the final seconds of the video, we quickly zoom back in, repeating much of the video in reverse.