HUBBLE ATLAS
Artist’s illustration of galaxy with jets from a supermassive black hole — image from the Hubble Space Telescope

Illustrations

Artist’s illustration of galaxy with jets from a supermassive black hole

May 28, 2015 · ESA/Hubble

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This artist’s impression illustrates how high-speed jets from supermassive black holes would look. These outflows of plasma are the result of the extraction of energy from a supermassive black hole’s rotation as it consumes the disc of swirling material that surrounds it. These jets have very strong emissions at radio wavelengths.