A “jet” of hot gas erupts from center of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 in this image from Hubble Space Telescope. The jet, which spans about 5,000 light-years, is fired into space by the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Stars are tightly concentrated around the black hole, but thin out at greater distances. Even so, M87 is many times the mass of the Milky Way. It is a member of the Virgo Cluster, which contains hundreds of galaxies. [NASA/ESA/STScI]
Find out more in our radio program entitled Virgo Cluster.