Telescopes Produce Stunning Eye-Shaped Image Of Supermassive Black Hole (Picture)

Supermassive Black Hole

Huffington Post UK   Alastair Plumb First Posted: 30/12/11 11:38 GMT Updated: 30/12/11 11:55 GMT

Spiral galaxy NGC 4151 may not have the snappiest of names, but as this image proves, it sure looks impressive.

Using data from the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite and the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma, the Canary Islands, it's a composite image of the supermassive black hole closest to earth.

The bright light in the centre is the black hole - perhaps black itself wouldn't show up so well in contrast to space - and the red, pupil-like ring around it is hydrogen.

If you'd like to take a closer look, you'd best get yourself a seriously large (and seriously expensive) telescope, or failing that, jump in your spaceship and travel the 43 million light years distance to NGC 4151. Don't get too close, mind, they don't take too kindly to visitors there.

As a brief recap of just what black holes are and why they're so awesome/worrying/supermassive, take a look at this clip from ever-reliable and totally lovely TV science man Brian Cox, as he enjoys a lovely freebie to Victoria Falls to explain how those blacky holey things work up in space.

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Spiral galaxy NGC 4151 may not have the snappiest of names, but as this image proves, it sure looks impressive. Using data from the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite and the Jacobus Kapte...
Spiral galaxy NGC 4151 may not have the snappiest of names, but as this image proves, it sure looks impressive. Using data from the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite and the Jacobus Kapte...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AB Taylor
life goes on within you and without you..
07:56 AM on 01/03/2012
From what I've read, the blacke hole closest to our solar system is a companion to a star cataloged as V4641. It is 1600 light years distant from us. The event in NGC4151 is a super nova and is the closest such event, 43 million light years distance, yet detected.
01:59 AM on 12/31/2011
black holes can be anywhere in a galaxy, they are the reminents of very large stars that have gone supernova, NGC 4151 just happens to be the closest to earth we have so far detected. you are also correct though, there is a very large black hole in the centre of the galaxy called Sagittarius A.
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KyDude
All the fish in the sea & I'm in land-locked state
12:44 PM on 12/30/2011
I admit I'm not a space know it all, and quite frankly some of it gets a bit confusing. Here, the article claims a black hole in Spiral galaxy NGC 4151 is the closest to earth. I have been under the impression that our own galaxy has a black hole. Is our galaxy so large that a black hole in another galaxy is closer than the black hole in our own?
01:18 PM on 12/30/2011
I totally agree with you!! This information contradicts what I have learned as well. Oh well, leave it to the "know it alls" to confuse us!
rdk70816
Yellowhammer
04:01 PM on 12/30/2011
There is a black hole in the middle of the Milky Way. It is best to stay away from it because you would be compressed to be a part of a point.
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KyDude
All the fish in the sea & I'm in land-locked state
06:07 PM on 12/30/2011
No Sh** Sherlock, now what's the answer to the question?