This composite NASA image of the spiral galaxy M81, located about 12 million light years away, includes X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (green), infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (pink) and ultraviolet data from GALEX (purple). The inset shows a close-up of the Chandra image. At the center of M81 is a supermassive black hole that is about 70 million times more massive than the Sun.
A new study using data from Chandra and ground-based telescopes, combined with detailed theoretical models, shows that the supermassive black hole in M81 feeds just like stellar mass black holes, with masses of only about ten times that of the Sun. This discovery supports the implication of Einstein's relativity theory that black holes of all sizes have similar properties, and will be useful for predicting the properties of a conjectured new class of black holes.
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley and CfA/A.Zezas; Optical: NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA
Learn more/access larger images:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/photos08-07...
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
Cracas, imagepeace, algringo666, and 118 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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adudi 53 months ago | reply
Congratulations, E x c e l l e n t!
EPERKE Award (Post 1: Award 5)
2 photos each day! Have a nice day!
benguszta [deleted] 53 months ago | reply
Please post this fantastic photo in:
EPERKE Award (Post 1: Award 5)
2 photos each day! Have a nice day!
josefontheroad 53 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Art and Photography 18+ (invited only, comment please) , and we'd love to have this added to the group!
This image really is intuitive, poetic, beautiful,
wild, imaginative, and powerful .
I admired it in:
North Wind's Daughter
Hi I'm Santi 52 months ago | reply
How could something so beautiful exist...
Mouin.M►(away) 48 months ago | reply
our sun transformation is imminent of being a black hole one day
Hi I'm Santi 47 months ago | reply
Actually, it's not massive enough. It's just going to expand into a red giant, then nova, then become a white dwarf (which eventually turns into a black dwarf).
duiceburger 46 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called NASA - Public Domain, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
BlueisCoool 44 months ago | reply
Seen in
FLICKR Stars group,
post 1 invite 1 award 6
and tag "Flickr Estrellas" on your picture
It should look like this:
www.flickr.com/groups/flickrestrellas
tag "Flickr Estrellas" on your picture
SollieH 44 months ago | reply
Seen in:
Flickr Bronze Award
Post 1, and award 5
rox_aria 44 months ago | reply
Seen in:
Flickr Bronze Award
Post 1, and award 5
maclete 44 months ago | reply
b>Seen in:
Flickr Bronze Award
Post 1, and award 5
NES-ART [deleted] 44 months ago | reply
Seen in:
Flickr Bronze Award
Post 1, and award 5
azzurra212 44 months ago | reply
Seen in:
Flickr Bronze Award
Post 1, and award 5
xcu 44 months ago | reply
Seen in:
Flickr Bronze Award
Post 1, and award 5
rowansmom2001 42 months ago | reply
Interesting information. The image is quite lovely.
ullischa 41 months ago | reply
Wow! Amazing picture (like all the others in this set!!)!
darzan39 37 months ago | reply
Complimenti, bella foto
PikPix 22 months ago | reply
What a stunning and touching image! I could cry it's so beautiful! I am crying...
PikPix 22 months ago | reply
You are invited to post this image in
Nature’s Patterns
Hope to see this exquisite image there!
Carmen Bulsara 20 months ago | reply
Amazing.