Hubble Space Telescope Images of M87

Astronomers find that the supermassive black hole at the center of the most massive local galaxy (M87) is not where it was expected. Their research, conducted using the Hubble Space Telescope, concludes that the supermassive black hole in M87 is displaced from the galaxy center.

At right is a large-scale image of galaxy M87 taken in 1998 with Hubble's Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2. The two images at left show an image taken in 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The position of the supermassive black hole is indicated by the black dot in the lower left panel, and a knot in the jet (HST-1), which was flaring in 2006, is also indicated on this panel. The red dot indicates the center of the galaxy's light distribution, which is offset from the position of the black hole by about 22 light-years.

About the data

ACS Data (left): The data used for the science results include the following ACS proposals of M87: (PI: J. Biretta) 9829 , 10133 , 10617 , and 10910 ; (PI: E. Perlman) 9705 ; and (PI: E. Baltz) 10543 . WFPC2 Image (right): The data used in the large (WFPC2) image of the M87 galaxy are from HST proposal 6775 : J. Biretta, W. Sparks, F.D. Macchetto (STScI), and E. Perlman (Florida Institute of Technology).

Science Publication: The "A Displaced Supermassive Black Hole in M87" research paper by D. Batcheldor (FIT), A. Robinson (RIT), D. Axon (School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex and RIT), E. Perlman (FIT), and D. Merritt (RIT) will be published in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.